Al-Qaeda Cell Was Preparing To Attack Middle East Gas Pipelines

An international Al-Qaeda cell, based in the northern Sinai Penninsula, is suspected of being involved in plans to attack gas pipelines running between Israel and Egypt.

According to Egyptian media, the plan was to strike Israeli ships passing through the Suez Canal.

Ten people, allegedly behind a February bomb attack at Cairo’s famous Khan el-Khalili market, have been under suspicion since a police raid uncovered arms and information from a hideout used by the group.

The cache of explosives included anti-tank weapons, car bombs and personal explosive belts.

Two Palestinians, five Egyptians, a Belgian, a Briton and a French citizen are among the suspected cell members.

It is believed the European members probably entered Egypt through underground tunnels near Rafah into the Gaza Strip.

They allegedly received money for their mission and moved back to Egypt through the tunnels, at which time they allegedly carried out the Cairo attack.

It has been suggested the cell was controlled by Khaled Mohammed Ahmed, the Palestinian-based commander of an al-Qaeda group.

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Zawahiri To Obama:You Are Not Welcome in Egypt

Al Qaeda No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri said in a new audiotape today that President Obama is not welcome in Egypt. Commenting on Obama’s upcoming visit to Cairo, Zawahiri said that President Obama’s message to the Muslim World has already been delivered.

“Obama’s message to the Muslim World was delivered when he visited the Wailing wall, with the Jewish skullcap on his head…when he performed the Jewish prayers despite claiming that he is Christian,” Zawahiri said, reminding his audience of Obama’s pledge before the AIPAC conference to make Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel.

The al Qaeda deputy chief accused Obama of approving the “Zionist aggression on Gaza,” of sending more troops to Afghanistan and continuing to bomb tribal areas of Pakistan, and of leading the “brutal campaign” against Muslims in the Swat valley. He said the Obama administration’s message to the Muslim world can be seen in the continued use of secret prisons and the breach of the Geneva conventions regarding terror detainees.

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Security Tight For Obama Visit To Cairo

US president Barack Obama has not yet decided whether his historic speech reaching out to the Muslim world will be delivered on June 4 from a lecture hall at Al Azhar University in Cairo or its main mosque. If the second, his address will take place in the presence of Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the Sunni Muslim world’s greatest religious authority. In any event, Al Azhar is the most eminent school of Islamic learning in the world and the US president therefore expects its impact to far outweigh his first address to Muslims from Istanbul.

His arrival from a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on June 3 is planned to add extra weight to Obama’s dramatic outreach to Muslims, since the king officiates as Custodian of the Holy Places to Islam.

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Giant transports have been landing at Cairo airport, unloading a fleet of armored vehicles, White House helicopters, counter-terror weapons and the vanguard of the 3,000 Secret Service officers backed by CIA and FBI personnel who will secure the US president during his stay in Egypt. Cairo will soon be in turmoil as forces are deployed from a command center at the American Embassy to control sections of downtown Cairo, with guard posts on the Nile River’s banks, the international airport, main railway terminals and approaches to the city.

Some 30,000 Egyptian security personnel including army units stationed in Cairo have been placed on special duty until the American president leaves. Their names and those of the welcoming party at Al Azhar University were submitted to the US presidential security center.

Obama is due to land in Cairo Thursday at 10 a.m., drive to the Abidin Palace to meet President Hosni Mubarak and proceed from there to Azhar University. His convoy will be escorted by vehicles equipped with sensors for detecting firearms and explosives and covered by Marine helicopters overhead.

Until the last minute, the president’s routes to the university have been withheld from Egyptian security authorities as a safeguard against leaks to hostile elements.

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Egypt Terror Cell Planned To Strike In Tel Aviv

Members of the Hizbullah cell uncovered in Egypt planned to carry out terror attacks inside Israel, Egyptian daily Almasry Alyoum reported on Thursday.

According to the report, two of the cell’s members are Fatah operatives, who confessed to having planned to enter Israel and carry out massive suicide attacks, “maybe even in Tel Aviv”.

Number of security patrols increased along Israel-Egypt border, police checkpoints reinforced to prevent illegal crossings after Cairo detained group allegedly linked to Hizbullah, Egyptian defense sources say

Sources close to the investigation told the newspaper that two Fatah members, Muhammad Ramadan Barakeh and Nidal Fathi Hassan were arrested under suspicion of ties with the Hizbullah cell.

Egyptian security forces arrested the two in Sinai a few weeks ago, while they were making their way to one of the underground tunnels leading into Gaza.

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Egyptian Forces In Sinai On High Alert For Hezbollah Terror

Egyptian forces in the Sinai Peninsula have been put on high alert in recent days following the arrest of a Hezbollah spy network operating on Egyptian soil, reported the Cairo-based Egyptian newspaper Almasry Alyoum. Egyptian officials fear other Hezbollah-linked activists are still at large and operating in Sinai, and may try to carry out terrorist attacks on Egyptian territory.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak commented on the arrests for the first time during a telephone conversation with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora yesterday, telling the pro-Western politician that Egypt will not allow foreign factions to undermine its sovereignty. He added that the Egyptian justice system will deal with the groups that Hezbollah ran inside Egypt.

The verbal blows and counterattacks between Egypt and Hezbollah escalated yesterday, with the al-Gomhouria newspaper calling Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, a “monkey sheikh” in its main editorial. The editorial, written by editor Mohamed Ali Ibrahim, covered the front page and carried the headline “A criminal who knows no repentance” over a picture of Nasrallah. “I say to you what every Egyptian knows, that you are an Iranian party,” Ibrahim wrote. “Are there instructions from Iran to drag Egypt into a conflict?”

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Official Says Bombers Targeted Children On School Trip In Cairo

Bombers targeted a French school trip to Cairo when they attacked a popular tourist site in which a 17-year-old French girl died, officials said.

Egyptian police arrested three people after Sunday’s bomb attack at the Khan al-Khalili market near the Hussein mosque, The Times of London reported Monday. The 20-plus wounded included 17 other French teens, a German, and several Saudis and Egyptians.

“Three people there were arrested on the site as suspects after the attack,” a police official said. “Others are being questioned as witnesses.”

An unexploded bomb was found nearby the blast site. Police detonated the second device safely

The teenagers were part of a group of 54 teenage students from Paris on a last-minute visit to the bazaar before heading home. The group returned from Cairo to Paris Monday, the British newspaper said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon denounced the incident.

“The government condemns with the greatest firmness this criminal act of blind and absurd violence,” Fillon said. “More than ever, France stands beside the Egyptian Republic as it faces this test and fights against terrorism.”

Police blocked off the area, full of cafes and souvenir stands, and used bomb-detecting dogs to find the second device.

Witnesses told The Times one of the bombs appeared to have been thrown from a passing motorbike, while others said that the devices were tossed from a nearby rooftop.

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Al Qaeda No. 2 Blames Obama For Gaza

An intelligence monitoring center reports that Al Qaeda’s No. 2 leader is blaming Barack Obama and Egypt’s president for the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

The SITE Monitoring Service says the audio statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri was posted on militant Web sites Tuesday.

This is al-Zawahiri’s first comment on the crisis since the war began eleven days ago.

In a transcript of the statement released by SITE, he calls the Israeli offensive a “Crusade against Islam and Muslims” and “Obama’s gift to Israel” before he takes office.

Al-Zawahiri also calls Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, a “traitor” for keeping his borders closed to Palestinians.

Sudan Kills Egypt Kidnappers After Desert Chase

UPDATE: All hostages are reported to have been released.

Sudanese forces have killed six kidnappers who abducted 11 European tourists and eight Egyptian guides in a remote desert in southern Egypt nine days ago, Sudan’s presidential advisor has said.

“Sudanese forces followed the tracks of the kidnappers … and found them on the Chad border,” Mahjoub Fadl Badri said on Sunday.

“Sudanese forces killed six, including the commander of a Darfur rebel group, and arrested two,” he said.

“What the [captured] kidnappers say is that the hostages are still in Chad, they put them in a hideout and are still negotiating about them, but we have no details whether the Chadian army has moved in.”

A Sudanese soldier was also injured in the clash, Egypt’s official MENA news agency quoted the Sudanese army as saying, adding that the hostages were now being held at a place called Tabbat Shajara, just inside Chad.

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Tourists Kidnapped in Egypt

Fifteen tourists were forcibly taken by kidnappers Monday in Upper Egypt. The 15 was made up of five Germans, five Italians, four Egyptians and one Romanian.

The kidnapping took place near Gilf el-Kabir near the Libyan borders. According to Mustapha Tawfiq, chief of police of Aswan, the abductors were four Egyptians wearing masks.

The Egyptian Tourism Minister condemned the abduction of the 15 as an act of banditry, not of terrorism.

The 15 were spread in three of four vehicles. A ransom demand has been made, although the amount asked was not revealed. Egyptian Tourism Minister Ahmed al-Maghrabi said negotiations with the kidnappers are underway.

There were speculations that Israelis were included in the group and that the victims were taken to Sudan. Local Israel radio clarified there was no Israeli among the 15, but there was no confirmation where the kidnap victims were brought.

The four Egyptians kidnapped were identified as two safari company employees, the owner of the company and a security officer looking after group.

The Egyptian tourism minister, Zoheir Garana, said his department was negotiating with the kidnappers, who are thought to be desert tribesman demanding up to $6m (£3.25m) in ransom.

An Egyptian government spokesman said it was thought the tourists were taken to Sudan.

Security sources said there was no indication Islamist militants were involved.

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