US-commanded MFO in Sinai under attack -- dead reported

Israel media  - Channel 2 - just reported that the US-commanded Multi-National Force Observors headquarters in the Sinai is under assault. Salafists laid seige to the building this afternoon and some 50 armed men stormed it. There is fighting going on in the building and there are dead inside.

The MFO is the force that was established under the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. It is charged with guaranteeing the demilitarization of the Sinai.

The MFO has two bases. I believe that the one under attack is in northern Sinai, built on an old Israeli Air Force base.

The MFO has come under attack several times since the outset of the US-supported Islamic revolution there. The US approved and forced Israel to accept the deployment of Egyptian tanks in the Sinai some weeks ago as part of a much touted counterterror offensive of the Egyptian military. Its results were inconclusive but at Israel's insistence, the tanks were removed a couple weeks ago. Egyptian President Morsi supports the remilitarization of the Sinai. It is hard not to see the strategic implications of this attack on the MFO.