Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt has determined massive recruitment efforts by Al Qaida and the ousted Muslim Brotherhood to attack the military-backed regime.

Military sources said Al Qaida and the Brotherhood were focusing on recruiting young Sunni Muslims, most of them teenagers, to attack government installations. They said the bulk of the recruitment was taking place in rural areas of Egypt.

“Most of them are very young — between 16 and 20 years old — and their minds are filled with jihadist and takfiri ideas,” an Egyptian officer said.

The officer told the official Al Ahram newspaper that recruitment was being conducted in Upper Egypt and the Delta. The young Muslims were said to have been trained in firearms and bombs.

“We are not afraid of confrontation, aware as we are of the professionalism of the attackers,” the officer said.

On Oct. 28, at least three Egyptian policemen were killed in an insurgency strike at a checkpoint in Mansoura north of Cairo. Another major strike was also reported near the North Sinai capital of El Arish, in which 12 fighters were captured, including Palestinians.

Another officer said Al Qaida and the Brotherhood were also being
joined by what he termed “mercenaries.” The unidentified officer said
mercenaries were paid by the number of officers killed and their rank.

“They are hired to kill soldiers and officers,” the officer said. “They
set a price on the basis of the rank of the target.”

The sources said the weapons and equipment for the new Islamists
militias were arriving from several sources, particularly Libya and Turkey.
They said explosives belts have been assembled for those recruited as suicide bombers.

A leading analyst asserted that the Brotherhood was being aided by its
foreign branches in the war against the military-backed regime that replaced
Egypt’s first Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. He said the Libyan branch
was especially active in sending weapons and fighters to Egypt.

“The situation on the Libyan side marks a blatant threat,” Ali Saleh, an
Egyptian analyst, said. “There is an unnatural proliferation of armed
fundamentalist organizations that swear loyalty to their counterparts in
Egypt.”

  Al Qaida recruiting Egyptian teens in rural areas to attack military sites, El Arish, Mansoura, Mohammed Morsi, Sunni Muslims