CAIRO, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian newly re-elected President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi vowed on Saturday to accomplish the goals of the ongoing Sinai anti-terror operation as soon as possible and to fulfill Sinai comprehensive development project with over 15 billion U.S. dollars by 2022.
In an event organized by the armed forces and aired on the state TV, Sisi expressed gratitude to Sinai residents for enduring the hard times of the anti-terror security campaign in the peninsula.
"We are totally aware that terrorism also exists outside Sinai," the president told a seminar organized by the military on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of Sinai Liberation Day.
The Egyptian army in cooperation with the police started on Feb. 9 a massive anti-terror security campaign named "Sinai 2018," which left so far some 240 terrorists and about 33 soldiers dead.
Sisi said that the residents of Sinai are not to bear the responsibility for the acts of "the people of evil," referring to terrorists and their supporters.
The Egyptian president said in late February that Sinai comprehensive development operation has already started since 2014 and will continue until 2022.
In mid-April, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail announced that his government allocated 275 billion Egyptian pounds (about 15.6 billion dollars) for the development of the Sinai Peninsula within four year as part of the country's efforts to eradicate terrorism.
Terrorism killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years, following the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Terror attacks gradually expanded from restive North Sinai province bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip to other provinces including the capital Cairo and started to target the Coptic minority via church bombings and shootings.
A Sinai-based militant group affiliated with the so-called Islamic State regional terror group claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in Egypt.
Terrorists further stormed a mosque in North Sinai's Arish city last November, killing more than 300 Muslim worshippers and injuring over 120 others, marking the deadliest terror attack and the first against a mosque in Egypt's modern history.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's removal.
