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Bedouins seize weapons from Egyptian police in Sinai rampage

Thursday, November 20, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

CAIRO — Bedouin insurgents have seized hundreds of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition from Egyptian authorities.

Security sources said Bedouins in the eastern Sinai have captured weapons and ammunition in raids of Egyptian police stations. The sources said the raids took place in early November amid anti-government riots sparked by the police killing of a Bedouin driver.

"They took over at least three police stations and took everything away," a security source said.

The biggest weapons haul by the Bedouins took place on Nov. 11 in Wadi El Azariq. The sources said hundreds of Bedouins, many of them with rifles, stormed a police station in the northeastern Sinai village and captured 40 officers.

The Bedouins were then said to have broke into the armory of the police station and took away more than 70 automatic weapons and 20,000 rounds of ammunition.

"The Bedouins also seized the communications and night-vision systems, which are both expensive and not available in many parts of Egypt," the source said.

The abducted police officers were said to have been severely beaten. A day later, they were released and most of the officers were hospitalized for broken bones and concussions. In all, more than 70 police officers were captured in clashes in eastern Sinai, which ended on Nov. 12.

In all, four Bedouins were killed in clashes with police. Three of them were said to have been shot dead and their bodies dumped along the Israeli border. Bedouin leaders have called for a special investigation of the Sinai police. The biggest Bedouin threat, the sources said, has come from the Tarabin tribe, one of the largest in Sinai. Unlike most Bedouins, Tarabin have numerous relatives in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Jordan.

About 200,000 Bedouins live in Sinai and have long complained of official discrimination. Security sources said Tarabin, active around El Arish, and other tribes in eastern Sinai have been active in drug and weapons smuggling to the Gaza Strip. "Tarabin has become close to Hamas and perhaps even Al Qaida and they have been harboring Palestinian operatives in eastern Sinai," the source said. "We don't see this as being over yet."

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