Egypt and Italy hold mountain training for military units — Asharq Al-Awsat

Egyptian Thunderbolt forces and Italian special forces held joint mountain warfare training exercises in Italy. The maneuvers lasted several days and were called “4IT-EGY-T-,” Asharq Al-Awsat reports, citing the spokesperson for the Egyptian Armed Forces.

Training in Italy’s mountains

Participants practiced safe movement in the mountains, operations in difficult terrain, mountaineering skills, and rapid descents from height in non-standard conditions and varying weather. According to the Egyptian military, the purpose of the training was to exchange experience, improve combat and specialized skills, and increase participants’ readiness to carry out tasks requiring special training.

The spokesperson for the Egyptian army said the exercises were part of efforts to strengthen military cooperation with friendly and brotherly countries.

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Context of relations between Cairo and Rome

The exercises took place several days after an Italian court sentenced three Egyptian officers in absentia to 10 years in prison, finding them involved in the kidnapping and detention of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni. The court acquitted Major General Tarek Saber, the former head of Egypt’s National Security Agency.

Regeni, a Cambridge University doctoral student, disappeared in Cairo on January 25, 2016, and his body was found about a week later. Egypt denies the involvement of state institutions in the case. Relations between the countries deteriorated after the researcher’s death, but have gradually recovered in recent years. In particular, on September 3, Cairo hosted a meeting of the Egyptian-Italian Joint Higher Committee for the first time since 2014, chaired by the foreign ministers of both states.