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Egypt blames Gaza factions for rocket attacks
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian security said on Wednesday that Gaza fighters may be behind rockets that hit Israel and Jordan on Monday, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported."The preliminary information that the security has received indicates that Palestinian factions from the Gaza Strip are behind that operation," the state news agency quoted an unnamed security source as saying. The rockets supposedly came from Egypt's Sinai, where Islamist armed groups have operated in the past, hit Israel's and Jordan's Red Sea ports on Monday, killing a Jordanian civilian and injuring three others, Jordanian and Israeli police said. The violence came hours after Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire in a fierce battle on their border that killed a senior Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist. It also followed days of Israeli strikes carried out in retaliation for rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory on Israeli communities. A top Jordanian government official said that Jordan did not believe it was the target of the rocket attack. Also, an Egyptian intelligence official said that police backed by 100 Bedouin trackers combed the area where the rocket supposedly came from and said there was nothing. He added that the region close to the border was also covered by surveillance cameras which saw nothing. "They (Jordanians and Israelis) said that the rocket was fired from the Pharaoh hotel. We searched and we found nothing," he said. "If the rocket was fired from near the hotel, it is impossible to reach Eilat or Aqaba because of the distance. Rockets can't fly 25 kilometers (15 miles)," he said speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. Soviet-style Grad rockets of the type used by fighters in Lebanon and Gaza, however, are known to have ranges of at least 25 miles (40 kilometers). He said he believed the rockets were fired from a mountain in Israel by Palestinian armed groups. Posted by: Fred 2010-08-05 |
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