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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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.