Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance (Egypt)

The Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance Administration (Arabic: إدارة المخابرات الحربية والاستطلاع, romanized: Idarah Al Mukhabarat Al Ḥarbiya Wal Istitlaʾ), is the agency of the Egyptian Ministry of Defense responsible for military intelligence.

A number of senior officers of the Egyptian Armed Forces have led the agency, including Field Marshal Abd Al-Halim Abu-Ghazala, a former defence minister, Gen. Omar Suleiman, the former vice president and former head of the General Intelligence Service, and Major General Murad Muwafi President of the General Intelligence Service, who was appointed successor to Suleiman in January / December 2011.

[1] Specialties of the agency include reconnaissance to discover enemy movements, collecting information on enemy formations and preparations in wartime and peacetime, and geographical surveys.

The agency has also, since the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser, conducted an internal mission to detect anti-regime elements within the military.

Historically, the agency suffered two major blows: failing to predict the Israeli attack on Egypt in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and failing to stop the assassination of President Anwar Sadat by Islamists linked to the military in 1981.