The Egyptian Army is the largest service branch within the Egyptian Armed Forces, and is the largest army in the Arab World, and Africa. It is estimated to number around 490,000, in addition to 485,000 reservists for a total of 975,000 strong. The modern army was established during the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1805-1849), who is considered to be the "founder of modern Egypt". Its most significant engagements in the 20th Century were in Egypt's five wars with the State of Israel (in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1967-1970, and 1973), one of which, the Tripartite Aggression of 1956, also saw it do combat with the armies of Britain, and France. The Egyptian army was also engaged heavily in the protracted North Yemeni Civil War, and the brief Libyan-Egyptian War in July, 1977. Its last major engagements was Operation Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in 1991, in which Egyptian army constituted the second largest contingent of allied forces.
Following the resignation of former President Hosni Mubarak on 11th February 2011, during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has been governing Egypt.
Read more about Egyptian Army: Structure, Order of Battle, Weapons Inventory
Famous quotes containing the words egyptian and/or army:
“What was I saying? An Egyptian king
Once touched long fingers, which are not anything.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“I was interested to see how a pioneer lived on this side of the country. His life is in some respects more adventurous than that of his brother in the West; for he contends with winter as well as the wilderness, and there is a greater interval of time at least between him and the army which is to follow. Here immigration is a tide which may ebb when it has swept away the pines; there it is not a tide, but an inundation, and roads and other improvements come steadily rushing after.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)