Egyptian daily al-Shuruq says 22 men, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Jordan’s planned to destabilize country following poll results, obtained police uniform and weapons.
Egyptian security forces arrested a suspected terror ring, thought to have planned attacks against targets in the Sinai in an attempt to destabilize the country following a key run-off presidential election, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Sunday.
The reported bust comes on the second day of voting in Egypt, pitting Ahmed Shadiq, former premier under Hosni Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, and follows reported attempts by the Brotherhood to strike Israeli targets in order to sway election results.
An unidentified Bedouin walks past Egyptian security forces at a check point on Feb. 6 , 2005, in Ras Sudr resort in southern Sinai, Egypt - Photo by AP
On Saturday, Israeli security officials said rockets that landed on Friday in the area near Ovda and Mitzpeh Ramon, were launched after a request by senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to those officials, the rockets were launched from the Sinai Peninsula by a Bedouin unit, according to Hamas orders, even though Hamas itself wasn’t the initiator of the launching, but responded to the request of the Brotherhood, who wanted such an event on the eve of the second round of presidential elections in Egypt.
On Sunday, the Egyptian newspaper al-Shuruq reported that Egyptian security forces arrested 22 Palestinians, Syrians, and Jordanians, some of whom had entered Sinai illegally, who had planned to attack police stations and other strategic targets in the desert peninsula.
The men, part of a suspected larger operation, were arrested in Rafah, Port Said, and Ismailia, after entering the Sinai unarmed, and transported with 4X4 vehicles to cities near the Suez Canal.
According to the report, the men intended to use police uniforms and arms seized during the popular unrest in the country last year. The most dangerous of the arrested operatives were said to have intended to perpetrate attacks intended to destabilize the country, immediately after elections results were released.
Some, reportedly, even obtained apartments in the area, rented for the period around the run-off vote.
When the suspected reportedly realized they were being followed by security forces, they fled and were later seized.
View original HAARETZ publication at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/egypt-busts-sinai-terror-ring-amid-run-off-presidential-elections-report-says-1.436858
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