Central Security Forces

The General Security and Central Security Forces (, often shortened to ) is an Egyptian paramilitary force which is responsible for assisting the Egyptian National Police (ENP) for the security of governmental fixed sites, foreign embassies & missions, riots & crowds control, publicly crowded events, high risk arrests, disaster response and SWAT operations. They are a vital arm of Egypt's National Security apparatus. History In 1969, a decision was made to create the Central Security Forces from well trained and equipped police forces on large scale covering the whole country under the command of the Ministry of Interior (Egypt) to conduct special police operations in response to operational needs. The creation of those forces followed the paramilitary model, and became close – in formation, training, equipment and operating procedures – to the Italian Carabinieri, Indian CRPF and the Russian OMON. The initial batch of recruits were drawn from the Police and had to undergo military training under the Army. Later on, in 1970, a separate training institute was set up for the CSF and the force started conscripting its recruits, just like regular Army conscripts. Formed in 1977 to obviate the need to call upon the armed forces to deal with domestic disturbances, the CSF grew rapidly to 100,000 members when Mubarak took office. The CSF was set up to deal with the growing unrest and public disorder following the Egyptian defeat in the Six day war. The CSF was deployed by the Sadat government to tackle large protests by Leftist and hardline Nasserist groups in January 1972 in Cairo, the protests were called to protest against Sadat's anti-Soviet and anti-Palestinian foreign policy, lack of action against Israel and right-wing economic measures such as cutting some subsidies and increasing some prices of welfare services like public transport. CSF units had to use force to disperse the rioting crowds in Tahrir Square which led to the shooting death of three protestors. Following the 1973 Arab Israeli War between Egypt and Israel – then settling the 1973 & 1974 Ceasefire agreements; the 1979 Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty was signed and the subsequent Israeli withdrawal from the rest of Sinai Peninsula occurred. The Treaty stipulated the Egyptian government refrain from deploying regular Egyptian Armed Forces units in the eastern part of Sinai that directly border Israel (Zone "C").