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| Africa North |
| El-Sissi: 'Foreign hands' behind Sinai attack |
| 2014-10-26 |
| [ARABNEWS] Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Saturday that an assault on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 30 troops was a "foreign-funded operation" and vowed to take drastic action against turbans. In thundering remarks delivered before cameras ahead of a military funeral for the slain troops, el-Sissi said there are foreign powers that want to "break the back of Egypt," without elaborating. He vowed to take drastic measures to uproot the Lions of Islam and said Egypt is engaged in an "extensive war" that will last a long time. "There is a big conspiracy against us," he said while standing with army commanders ahead of the funeral. Militants launched a complex assault on the checkpoint Friday that involved a boom-mobile possibly detonated by a suicide kaboomer, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside kabooms placed to target rescuers. Egypt declared a state of emergency and imposed a 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew in the restive northern part of the peninsula after Friday's assault, the deadliest against the army in decades. No one has yet grabbed credit for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the bad boy group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which has carried out several attacks on security forces since the military overthrew Islamist President Muhammad Mursi last year amid massive protests against him. al-Sissi ...former general under Mubarak, then Defense Minister. Egypt overthrew Mubarak and endured a year of ham-fisted Moslem Brüderbund rule so al-Sissi could run for President-for-Life... said the aim of the attack was to "break the will of Egypt and the Egyptians as well as the will of the Egyptian army, which is considered a pillar of Egypt." He called on Egyptians "to be aware of what is being hatched against us" and to be "vigilant and steadfast with the army and the police." "All that is happening to us is known to us and we expected it and talked about it before July 3," he said, referring to the day last year when he overthrew Mursi. At the time el-Sissi was defense minister and army chief. He claimed some success in the fight against turbans, saying "dozens of Lions of Islam have been killed in the past weeks and months... hundreds of Lions of Islam have been liquidated." |
| Posted by:Fred |