EGYPT RECEIVES 10 APACHE HELICOPTERS FROM US

Cairo, 29 Safar 1436/22 December 2014 (MINA) – The Egyptian army had received ten apache helicopters as part of U.S. military aid, partly frozen in 2013, Egyptian media reported.

“The armed forces had received ten apache helicopters from the U.S.,” the state-run news site Al-Ahram Gate quoted a military source as saying, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Monday.

The source did not, however, mention the date of the apache helicopters’ delivery to Egypt.

The U.S. State Department had promised to deliver the four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopters several times in the past months.

Egypt said it needed these helicopters to cope up with growing militant challenges in the Sinai Peninsula, northeastern Egypt, where the Egyptian army has been engaged in fighting militancy for a year and a half now.

U.S. military aid to Egypt was negatively affected soon after the ouster by the Egyptian army of elected president Mohamed Morsi in July of last year.

In October 2013, the U.S. administration partly suspended military aid to Egypt which included the ten apache aircrafts.

Washington allocates $1.5 billion annually in aid to Egypt of which $1.3 billion are for military assistance since the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in 1979 (T/P002/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)