Security agencies in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are coordinating their efforts in order to trace back the terrorists' course of action, following Monday's bombing attack in Sinai's Dahab. The Egyptian security forces are exchanging intelligence information with Jordan and Saudi Arabia in an effort to reveal how the weapons and explosives were smuggled into Dahab. At least twenty four people were killed and dozens injured when three suicide bombers detonated explosive belts they were carrying on their bodies. Ten people have already been arrested according to security sources, and efforts are now focused on tracking down those behind the attack. Meanwhile, Jordan is intensifying its security measures in the coastal city of 'Aqaba, which lies only a few kilometers from Sinai. Egypt accuses a group called Tawhid wal Jihad (Unification and holy war) of carrying out the July 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks that killed some 70 people and multiple bombings further up the coast that left 34 dead in October 2004. Tawhid wal Jihad was the name of Islamic extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's organisation before it was renamed Al-Qaeda in Iraq in late 2004.
| I doubt al-Tawhid ever went out of business. Zark and Abu Qatada established it with the aim of overthrowing the Jordanian monarchy, and it was active in Europe and the Levant before and after 9-11. It's my guess that it exists distinct from the al-Qaeda in Iraq organization and Ansar al-Islam. |