Central Security Forces

Central Security Forces قوات الأمن المركزي Quwwāt al-Amn al-Markazī
Central Security Forces
Founded	1977
Headquarters	Cairo, Egypt
Manpower
Military age	18 years of age for conscript military service; 3-year service obligation (2001)
Available for military service	males age 18–49: 18,347,560 (2005) males, age 15–49, males age 18–49: 15,540,234 (2005) females, age 15–49
Reaching military age annually	males: 802,920 (2005)
Active personnel	400,000 (ranked 10th)
Expenditures
Budget	$2.44 billion (2003)+ $1.3 billion of U.S military aid annually
Percent of GDP	3.4% (2004)
Related articles
History	1986 Egyptian conscripts riot Egyptian Revolution of 2011 Egyptian Crisis Sinai insurgency

The 450,000 strong General Security and Central Security Forces (Arabic: قوات الأمن العام و الأمن المركزي‎‎ Quwwāt al-Amn al- Amm wa Quwwāt al-Amn al-Markazī, often shortened to الأمن المركزي Al-Amn al-Markazī) CSF organisation 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.

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. 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.