Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt has concluded that a foreign intelligence agency could have helped a major Al Qaida-aligned attack on the military near the Libyan border.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry said a foreign intelligence agency was believed responsible for the financing of an attack that killed 22 soldiers near the Libyan border on July 21. The ministry did not identify the foreign intelligence agency, but officials said the reference was to Qatar.

“This campaign could be carried out only by a foreign intelligence agency,” Interior Ministry spokesman Hani Abdul Latif said on July 24. “Egypt has fought a major battle to foil the plot of the so-called New Middle East.”

The term “new Middle East” has been used by Egypt to describe Western efforts to join with the Muslim Brotherhood to destabilize the region.

Officials have asserted that Qatar, Turkey and the United States were promoting Brotherhood interests in wake of the overthrow of Egypt’s first Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, in July 2013.

Responsibility for the attack on an Egyptian border post in the Wadi Al Jedid province was claimed by Ansar Beit Maqdis. Officials said the attackers, who sought to transport Soviet-origin rockets to Sinai, came from Libya and had planned mass-casualty strikes in Egypt. One of the Ansar casualties was identified as Hisham Ashmawi, a former Egyptian Army commando.

“They [authorities] foiled major terrorist operations through preemptive strikes, which caused them to fail,” Abdul Latif said. “They intended to attack the border as well as inside Egypt.”

Officials have accused Qatar of harboring exiled Brotherhood leaders. They said Ansar was adopted by the Brotherhood after the 2013 coup.

“The terrorist attacks were conducted by mercenaries who were trained and fought in Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria,” Abdu Latif said. “They were recruited to serve foreign intelligence services to carry out their international plots.”

Officials said the Egyptian Air Force has been operating along the frontier of Egypt and Sudan. They said the air force also deployed the U.S.-origin AH-64 Apache attack helicopter to track and target Ansar strongholds in Sinai. On July 27, the military reported the killing of 14 Al Qaida-aligned insurgents along the Gaza-Sinai border.

“We are working on eliminating the final points of terror in North Sinai, and this has pushed them [Ansar] to Western Sahara,” Abdul Latif said.

  Ansar Beit Maqdis, Egypt hints Qatar involved in attack that killed 22 soldiers near Libyan border, Hani Abdul Latif, Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar, Wadi Al Jedid