Dagens angrep i Sinai, der to canadiske observatører ble såret, bekrefter at Sinai er blitt hjemsted for jihadister. Det er trolig de samme kreftene som sto bak både Taba-bombene i fjor og selvmordsaksjonene i Sharm el-Sheikh.
Det er urovekkende at jihadistene har fått fotfeste i et nytt område.
To gassbeholdere var gravd ned på hver sin side av veien, og forbundet med en elektrisk kabel. Da observatørene kom kjørende, ble eksplosjonen utløst. Men bare den ene beholderen gikk i luften.
En gruppe som kaller seg “mujahedin i Egypt” påtåk seg ansvaret.
“The lions of jihad… pounced on a vehicle of the multinational force, killing three Israelis and two Canadians and wounding two others,” claimed the Internet statement whose authenticity could not be confirmed.(afp)
Ikke noe tyder på at det var drepte.
Angrepet fant sted bare 25 kilometer fra Gaza-stripen. Et stort spørsmål er hvordan sikkerheten blir på grensen mellom Egypt og Gaza når israelerne er ute.
Den multinasjonale observatørstyrken ble opprettet i 1982, for å observere fredsavtalen mellom Israel og Egypt. 2.000 observatører fra 11 land deltar i arbeidet, som ikke er en FN-operasjon.
New York Times hadde en artikkel om den hjemmeavlede jihadismen. Det er unge mennesker som er på leting etter noe nytt. De greier ikke leve som foreldrene, og finner det de søker i jihadismen. En sak. En tro. Det er jihadisme som protestbevegelse.
More than 20 sons of the Sinai are suspected by Egyptian authorities of being involved in the attacks on Taba and Sharm el Sheik, and the police have drawn up a list of 15 men they are still searching for. Moussa Badran reportedly blew himself up in the attack on Sharm and his brother Youssef is in hiding, wanted for questioning. Iyad Said died in a car explosion in Taba. Osama Muhammad Abdel Ghany is hiding as the police search for him in connection with the Sharm el Sheik attack.
“The presence of extremist elements is a new phenomenon,” said El-Kashef Muhammad el-Kashef, a member of Parliament who is from El Arish and represents northern Sinai. “Sinai did not know of extremism over the span of its entire history.“
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Ahmed Felaifel was just as surprised when his sons started preaching a very strict interpretation of Islam, one that is alien to his tribe, the Sawarka, one of the largest of the Bedouin tribes in the northern Sinai. The Sawarka, who are practicing Muslims, live by their own laws and customs, handed down for generations. They herd goats in the desert and grow watermelon and dates.Mr. Felaifel said it was disturbing when his sons initially refused to work as herders, would not listen to him and heed his wishes, and that it was shocking when they showed up with beards.
“After they grew beards, they made problems, something snapped,” said Muhammad el-Gareerat, a tribal member and close friend of Mr. Felaifel. “They threw around words and advice. They said: ‘The way you eat is wrong. The way you pray is wrong. The way you dress is wrong.’ ”
“They grew beards and he kept saying this is haram, this is haram, this is haram,” Mr. Felaifel said, using a term which means something is forbidden, or impermissible, under Islam.
And so he cast them out.
El Arish is effectively the capital of northern Sinai, the biggest city center in the area with a population of about 120,000, 240 miles northeast of Cairo. Most of its citizens work for the government, farm or herd animals in the desert, or are unemployed. The city has miles of Mediterranean beachfront with signs directing bathers to places like Coral Cove. But the town never caught on as a tourist attraction, either for foreigners or Egyptians.
For so poor a place, there is a tremendous amount of construction, house after house going up. There are also new, privately financed mosques every few blocks. A local political leader said that one of the new mosques also ran a health clinic supported by money from “the gulf.” He did not specify further.
Egypt Uncovers a New Source of Extremism in an Unexpected Place: Northern Sinai
