Sunday, February 03, 2008

Egypt searches for terrorists in Sinai

From JPost, Feb 1, 2008, by ASSOCIATED PRESS RAFAH, Gaza Strip

Egyptian security forces were looking for four Palestinians on Saturday who slipped into the country from the Gaza Strip the previous day and were suspected of planning suicide attacks against resorts in the Sinai Peninsula, a local security official said....

....The search follows the arrests of 15 Palestinians over the past few days who were caught carrying weapons and explosives in the town of el-Arish, located some 35 kilometers from the border, and other remote parts of the Sinai desert.

Twelve of those arrested were members of Hamas, said a senior intelligence officer in northern Sinai, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The group consisted of two cells arrested separately as they attempted to sneak out of el-Arish carrying explosives, electric circuits, machine guns and ammunition, the official added.

Thousands of Palestinians continued to pour through the breached Gaza-Egypt frontier on Saturday, a day after Hamas used bulldozers to widen the breach of the 12-kilometer-long border to allow trucks to cross into Egypt. Egyptian police did not block the trucks' access and Palestinian sources said that the Egyptians would wait until Sunday before attempting to reseal the border....

....Gaza's Hamas rulers want a role in running the border with Egypt, a demand rejected this week by Egypt and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
It remains unclear whether Hamas will use force to keep the border open....

No comments: