Egypt arrested a three-man terrorist cell in the Sinai that was on its way to perpetrate a “giant attack.” So reports the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat.
Egyptian security sources are quoted by the paper as saying that the three intended to attack a target in Sharm el-Sheikh, a significant tourist attraction on the southern tip of the Sinai. A large amount of explosives was found in their car.
The cell was stopped 11 days ago, or five days before five rockets were fired towards Eilat, apparently from the same Sinai area. No one was hurt in Eilat; one rocket overshot its mark, landed in Aqaba, Jordan, and killed one person and wounded three.
Egypt says that the arrested cell is not connected with that attack, for which it still denies responsibility. "We do not believe at all that the shooting was perpetrated from the Sinai," an Egyptian source told the paper.
The two incidents indicate the strengthening of terror organizations in the Sinai peninsula – about 61,000 square kilometers (23,500 square miles) of largely open area.
Israel has long demanded that Egypt take stronger action to police the area and prevent smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
On July 23, 2005, a series of three terrorist bomb blasts killed 88 people in Sharm el-Sheikh. Most of the dead were Egyptians, and the remainder were foreign tourists, including one Israeli.