After Sinai attack, Egyptian president orders army to back police in guarding key facilities

Egypt’s most prominent activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, left, walks with his mother Laila Soueif, a university professor who is an also an activist, outside a court that convicted 23 activists of staging an illegal demonstration and sentenced them each to three years in jail, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014. Among the 23 is Sanaa Seif, who hails from a family of longtime rights campaigners, including her late father Ahmed Seif al-Dawla and brother Alaa Abdel-Fattah. Another defendant is Yara Sallam, a prominent rights lawyer. Sunday's verdicts, which can be appealed, comes at a time when Egypt is swept by nationalist sentiments following a dramatic surge in attacks blamed on Islamic militants on troops and security forces in the Sinai Peninsula while witnessing a smear campaign targeting many of the secular pro-democracy campaigners behind the 2011 uprising. (AP Photo/Hussein Tallal) (The Associated Press)

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Egypt’s most prominent activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah receives a hug from a supporter outside a court that convicted 23 activists of staging an illegal demonstration and sentenced them each to three years in jail, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014. Among the 23 is Sanaa Seif, who hails from a family of longtime rights campaigners, including her late father Ahmed Seif al-Dawla and brother Alaa Abdel-Fattah. Another defendant is Yara Sallam, a prominent rights lawyer. Sunday's verdicts, which can be appealed, comes at a time when Egypt is swept by nationalist sentiments following a dramatic surge in attacks blamed on Islamic militants on troops and security forces in the Sinai Peninsula while witnessing a smear campaign targeting many of the secular pro-democracy campaigners behind the 2011 uprising. (AP Photo/Mohammed Abu Zeid) (The Associated Press)

Egypt’s most prominent activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah arrives outside a court that convicted 23 activists of staging an illegal demonstration and sentenced them each to three years in jail, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014. Among the 23 is Sanaa Seif, who hails from a family of longtime rights campaigners, including her late father Ahmed Seif al-Dawla and brother Alaa Abdel-Fattah. Another defendant is Yara Sallam, a prominent rights lawyer. Sunday's verdicts, which can be appealed, comes at a time when Egypt is swept by nationalist sentiments following a dramatic surge in attacks blamed on Islamic militants on troops and security forces in the Sinai Peninsula while witnessing a smear campaign targeting many of the secular pro-democracy campaigners behind the 2011 uprising. (AP Photo/Hussein Tallal) (The Associated Press)

CAIRO – The Egyptian president has ordered that the military will join police forces in guarding vital state facilities against terror attacks.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi issued the order in a decree Monday.

It follows a surge in attacks by Islamic militants against troops and police. Thirty Egyptian soldiers were killed on Friday by suspected militants in the troubled northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. It was deadliest attack against the army in decades.

The decree stipulated that army troops will join police in guarding state facilities for two years during which they will be treated as military installations. Perpetrators of any attacks against the facilities will be tried before military tribunals.

The decree will further raise the public profile of the military since it toppled Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year.