Egyptian intel: Al Qaida recruiting Gaza militants for attacks in Sinai

Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt has determined that Palestinian fighters from the Gaza
Strip were playing a major role in the revolt in the Sinai Peninsula.

Security sources said the Egyptian intelligence community has assessed
that the Hamas regime as well as Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip were
sending hundreds of fighters to join the revolt in Sinai.

The charred remains of an armored vehicle are loaded onto a trick after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a police checkpoint that killed a police colonel in El-Arish, Egypt on July 12.  /AP/Muhammed Sabry
The charred remains of an armored vehicle are loaded onto a truck after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a police checkpoint that killed a police colonel in El Arish, Egypt on July 12. /AP/Muhammed Sabry

The sources said the Palestinians were believed to have been recruited by Bedouin militias and Al Qaida-aligned forces to attack the military presence in Sinai in wake of the ouster of Egypt’s first Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi.

“Terrorists have escalated their planned operations against the police and armed forces in the Sinai over the last few days,” military spokesman Col. Mohammed Ali said. “Their aim is to spread chaos and undermine Egyptian national security.”

[On July 15, at least three people were killed and 17 were injured in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a bus full of laborers in El Arish. The Egyptian Army said the RPG attack targeted a police vehicle and instead
struck the bus.]

Ali said the insurgency has included numerous Palestinians who
infiltrated from the Gaza Strip. He cited the capture of an unspecified
number of Palestinians with weapons and explosives as they emerged
from a tunnel that linked Sinai to Gaza.

“They also carried false Egyptian identity cards produced by Hamas,” Ali
said.

The sources said the Palestinians, armed with rocket-propelled grenades
and mortars, participated in attacks on Egyptian soldiers as well as the
smuggling of weapons and other equipment for Bedouin insurgents linked to Al
Qaida. They said the Palestinians were most active in northeastern Sinai,
particularly El Arish, Rafah and Sheik Zweid.

“The Palestinians involved in terrorism can be divided into two,” a
security source said. “One class consists of those recruited by Islamist
militias, and the other stems from Hamas and Palestinian groups that are
trying to expand tunnel smuggling from Sinai to Gaza.”

On July 12, a Palestinian was captured as he tried to enter Sinai from
Ismailia. The Palestinian, identified as Mohammed Abu Hashim, was said to
have participated in the bombing of the Arab Gas Pipeline near El Arish on
July 7.

The sources said Hamas and such Palestinian militias as Islamic Jihad,
Popular Resistance Committees and Army of Islam have sought to exploit the
military coup against Morsi to restore arms smuggling through Sinai. They
said that during the last three months at least 60 percent of the smuggling
was halted by intensified operations by the Egyptian Army and Central
Security Forces.

“There will soon be a major operation by the armed forces in Sinai to
get rid of these terrorists,” former North Sinai Gov. Maj. Gen. Mohammed
Abdul Fadil Shousha said. “The Army might now be in the process of gathering
information on the militants, their financiers and leaders.”

Shouhsa told the Saudi newspaper A-Sharq Al Awsat that the revolt was
the work of trained and equipped sleeper cells that had been waiting for
orders to launch attacks. He said most of them were linked to Al Qaida.

Prominent Egyptians have called for a crackdown on the Palestinian
presence throughout Egypt. They were urging the military to expel
Palestinians — accused of joining the Muslim Brotherhood in attacks on the
pro-democracy opposition — from military and police academies as well as
universities.

“We are confident that the peaceful will of the people will prevail over
force, oppression and injustice, attempts to obscure the facts, lies and
fabrications and military dictatorship,” the Brotherhood said.

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