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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: May 10, 2006 |
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Police said they killed the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group who masterminded a bombing last month in an Egyptian Red Sea resort in a gunbattle Tuesday in the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula.
It was the seventh suspected extremist killed by Egyptian security forces since a massive sweep was launched in Sinai following the April 24 triple bombing in the tourist center of Dahab, killing 21 people.
The Dahab blast was the third major attack on Sinai resorts during the past two years, killing about 120 people in total. Egyptian authorities have said all three attacks were carried out by a group calling itself "Monotheism and Jihad."
The group's leader, Nasser Khamis el-Mallahi, was killed in a half-hour gun battle after security forces surrounded him in an olive grove in el-Karama district, south of el-Arish, the main town in the northern Sinai, said the commander of North Sinai security, Lt. Gen. Essam el-Sheik.
An accomplice, Mohammed Abdullah Abu Grair, was captured after running out of ammunition, and police found automatic rifles and hand-grenades at the scene, el-Sheik said.
"This is a major blow to the terrorist group," el-Sheik said. Hundreds of security officers were seen celebrating the success in front of the security police headquarters later Tuesday, chanting "Allahu Akbar," or God is Great.
The Interior Ministry congratulated the police in a statement that described el-Mallahi as "the mastermind and leader of the group that carried out the Dahab and el-Gorah explosions" - a reference to an attack by suicide bombers on April 26 against vehicles of the Egyptian police and the international peacekeeping force in the Sinai. The bombers were killed but caused no other causalties.
Tuesday's killing came a day after Israel warned its citizens to stay away from the Sinai, a popular destination with Israeli tourists, because of an "increased threat of kidnapping of Israeli citizens on the Sinai coast."
Israeli officials and some terror experts have said the perpetrators of the Sinai bombings - including the October 2004 bombings in Taba and Ras Shitan and the July 2005 attack in Sharm el-Sheik - were linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.
Egyptian authorities are at pains to say the attacks were the work of local groups that have no ties to outside terrorist organizations, apparently concerned about damaging the tourism industry. Tourism is a major source of Egypt's foreign exchange, earning US$6.4 billion last year.
The name Monotheism and Jihad has been used by a number of terror groups believed to be at least inspired by al-Qaida. In a claim of responsibility issued after the Sharm bombings, a group using the name said it was acting on orders from bin Laden his Egyptian deputy Ayman Zawahri, who has denounced the Egyptian government as un-Islamic.
But it is not known to what extent the perpetrators of the Sinai attacks are in contact with al-Qaida's leadership or receive funding, training or weapons from the terror network.
The leader of the Iraqi version of Monotheism and Jihad, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, changed the name of his group to al-Qaida in Iraq after swearing allegiance to bin Laden. However, he is not believed to carry out attacks on the specific orders of bin Laden.
Egypt has launched massive sweeps in the Sinai in the wake of each of the resort bombings, arresting hundreds. Fifteen militants are currently on trial for the Taba and Ras Shitan blasts. Six suspected militants have been killed in a series of gunbattles in the Sinai since the Dahab attack.
El-Mallahi's father, Khamis al-Mallahi, said his son had fled the family home soon after the Taba attack.
"He was a life loving kid, he did not pray untill 2002, when he started hanging out with the Islamists," he told The Associated Press. |
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