Egypt: Sophisticated Jihadist Operations
April 26, 2006 12 34 GMT
Summary
Suicide bombers struck international and Egyptian security facilities
in the Sinai on April 26, while Palestinian security forces seized a
vehicle filled with explosives at an Egyptian-Gaza border crossing. The
attacks, coming two days after the triple bombing in the Egyptian
resort town of Dahab, likely are designed to deter post-attack
investigations and raids by Egyptian security forces. That all this
activity is happening so close to the border with Israel indicates the
jihadists are trying to disrupt peaceful relations between Egypt and
Israel.
Analysis
Two suicide attackers targeted a multinational peacekeeping base April
26 on the northern Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. The attacks occurred near
the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) base in Gura, 16 miles west
of the Gaza Strip. The first bomber detonated as a vehicle carrying an
Egyptian police officer and peacekeepers from the MFO base passed by.
The second bomber died as he tried to set off explosives against an
Egyptian police vehicle that rushed to the site of the first blast.
There also were reports of gunfire between militants and Egyptian
police in the eastern part of the country. In the Gaza Strip,
meanwhile, Palestinian security forces prevented a vehicle filled with
explosives from entering Israel at the Karni border crossing, while
Israeli Radio reported that another car bomb exploded near the Rafah
crossing from Gaza into Egypt.
After the triple bombings in the Red Sea tourist resort of Dahab on
April 24, the follow-up attacks represent an attempt by militants to
stop Egyptian forces from going after militant infrastructure in the
region. Striking at MFO personnel and sending in a vehicle rigged as a
bomb, together with the attacks against the resort, also are meant to
unnerve the Israelis and upset Egyptian-Israeli relations.
The attacks over the past three days, the audio communiqu=E9 from al
Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on April 23 and the first video statement
from the jihadist movement's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, will
amplify security concerns in the region and beyond, especially for the
Israelis who will feel as if they are caught in the middle of
escalating jihadist activity from both the east and the west. The
attacks in Egypt will complicate matters on the Israeli-Palestinian
track as well as Israel attempts to secure the Palestinian territories
from jihadist infiltration.
These latest attacks in the Sinai underscore that a sophisticated
jihadist infrastructure is in place in the Sinai, despite claims by
Cairo that this is the work of Bedouins.
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