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| Africa North |
| Egypt seizes group that planned attacks on tourist sites |
| 2006-04-20 |
| Egypt yesterday arrested Islamic militants who it claimed were planning to blow up tourist sites and kill Muslim and Christian religious figures. "Information, documents and discussions [with the detained men] confirmed that they had studied the execution of operations against tourist sites, and against the natural gas pipeline on the circle road which surrounds greater Cairo," said a statement by the interior ministry. The ministry said the 22 men, who call themselves the Victorious Group, had downloaded information about bomb making from the internet and had contacted foreign militants with the purpose of sending some members to fight abroad. The authorities did not suggest that the men possessed any weapons or explosives. But they said the group had tried to buy a piece of land in Al Saff, 60km south of Cairo, to use as a training base. The interior ministry statement was accompanied by photographs of all 22 men who range in age from 18 to 31. The leader of the group was identified as Ahmed Mohammed Ali Gabr, a university student. The announcement comes at a time when the Egyptian authorities are facing resistance from the Muslim Brotherhood - the largest opposition bloc in parliament - and from civil society groups to the extension of the emergency law under which Egypt has been governed since 1981. A Brotherhood spokesman was yesterday quoted as saying that the announcement of the arrests was a pretext for the extension of the emergency law, which gives the security services sweeping powers and which would otherwise expire in June after almost 25 years in force. The president, Hosni Mubarak, has promised the law will be abolished and replaced by new anti-terror legislation. But human rights groups, which claim that some 15,000 people are in jail without trial in Egypt, say they fear that the emergency law, which they accuse of stifling political life, will survive. The authorities, however, argue that the threat of terrorist attacks makes it necessary to give the security services enhanced powers. The government managed in the late 1990s to crush the two main militant organisations that had been active in the country since the assassination of former president Anwar Sadat in 1981. After a seven-year period of calm, groups, apparently inspired by al-Qaeda, emerged in Cairo and Sinai, where bombings have targeted tourists. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |