Al Qaida militias in Gaza said to have bombed Sinai natural gas terminal
CAIRO — Egypt has determined that Al Qaida-aligned militias in the
neighboring Gaza Strip were responsible for the bombing of a natural gas
terminal that supplied both Israel and Jordan.
Security sources said cameras at the gas terminal near the Sinai city of
El Arish pointed to the identities of those who attacked the facility on
Feb. 5. They said the suspects were believed to be members of an Al
Qaida-aligned militia in the neighboring Gaza Strip.
"They are likely to have been Palestinians who entered Rafah through the
tunnels," a security source said.
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The sources said the most likely planner of the bombing was the Al
Qaida-aligned Army of Islam. Army of Islam, headed by Mumtaz Dughmoush, was
said to be responsible for a string of attacks in Egypt since 2007.
Egyptian authorities have relayed information on the suspects to the
Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, the sources said. They said Hamas was
unlikely to arrest anybody from Army of Islam, a former ally.
The bombing at the gas facility sparked a huge fire that forced a
shutdown of gas to Israel and Jordan. The sources said the facility would
require at least another week for repairs.
Army of Islam has been identified as the chief suspect in the bombing of
a Coptic church in Alexandria in January. The sources said Egyptian
forensic experts were examining traces of the bomb in the gas facility to
determine if they matched the explosives in the church.