Posted on 05/11/2013 8:57:49 AM PDT by csvset
Egypt’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday that it had detained men belonging to an al Qaeda-linked group who were planning a bomb attack on a foreign embassy in the country.
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said Saturday that Egyptian security forces had intercepted a terrorist cell linked to al Qaeda that was on the verge of carrying out a suicide attack on a foreign embassy.
“The Interior Ministry was able to direct a successful blow to a terrorist cell that was planning suicide operations,” Ibrahim said during a televised news conference.
The minister did not specify which embassy was being targeted, but named three alleged members of the group.
He said one of the men arrested had been part of al Qaeda in Algeria and had received terrorism training in Pakistan and Iran.
Ibrahim insisted the neutralised cell was not a branch of al Qaeda based in Egypt, but said police had identified links to al Qaeda groups operating in Western Asia.
The detained men had been in possession of statements issued by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) and 10kg of materials used to make explosives.
They have to toss out a red herring every once in a while to show the are “doing something”. Not that there’s terrorist threat any longer. Thanks barry.
Clever. al Qaeda “reports” al Qaeda to create
a moderate al Qaeda for Obama to send US taxpayer money
and weapons to.
The Washington Post will blame it on Chick Fil a branch of the GOP.
Why not? That tactic has worked brilliantly for the Palestinians over the years.
Couldn’t be Al Qaeda Obama destroyed them.
A funny thing just occurred to me.
Remember when they made such fun of Bush when he said “Mission Accomplished.”?
No one ever says anything about Obama destroying Al Qaeda.
Where are all the Al Qaeda is dead signs?
Excellent point.
Good question.
Egyptian police have arrested three al-Qaeda militants planning a suicide attack on a Western embassy, the country's interior minister says.
Mohammed Ibrahim did not specify which embassy had been targeted, but said a quantity of chemicals had been found. Mr Ibrahim gave the names of three men and said they were planning attacks in both Cairo and Alexandria.
The minister did not specify which embassy was being targeted, but named three alleged members of the group. He said one of the men arrested had been part of al Qaeda in Algeria and had received terrorism training in Pakistan and Iran.
Al Qaeda-linked cell ‘targeted’ French, US embassies in Egypt
Members of an al Qaeda-linked cell detained by Egyptian authorities earlier this week were planning to commit suicide attacks on the French and US embassies in Cairo, the MENA state news agency quoted investigators as saying on Wednesday.
An Al-Qaeda-linked cell broken up in Egypt at the weekend planned to bomb the US and French embassies in Cairo, state news agency MENA quoted investigators as saying on Wednesday.
"The accused planned suicide car bombings outside the embassies of France and the United States in Egypt," MENA said
In the case of the French mission, the motive was to register a protest "against French military intervention in Mali," investigators were quoted as saying.
The news agency did not say why the American embassy was to be targeted.
On Saturday, Egyptian Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said police had arrested three members of a "terror cell" involved in a transnational plot to bomb a Western embassy and other targets.
Ibrahim said they were captured with 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of fertiliser, and a computer containing instructions on bomb-making.
MENA said the three were Egyptian and quoted security sources as saying they had been among prisoners who managed to escape from prison during the 2011 uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak.
Two of the suspects had been extradited in 2009, one from Algeria and the other from Iran, the agency said.
The three admitted having been in contact with Al-Qaeda but denied plotting any attacks, the agency added.
On Saturday, Ibrahim said they had been in touch with Kurdi Dawud al-Assadi who is "the head of Al-Qaeda in some west Asian countries."
One of them associated with Al-Qaeda members in Algeria and received training from the loose-knit militant organisation in Pakistan and Iran, Ibrahim said.
The suspects' lawyer said he attended their questioning on Saturday and claimed the prosecution had no evidence, including disputing that they were caught with explosives.
"This is just a case of the security apparatus trying to assert its worth," Mamduh Ismail told AFP.
MENA said on Saturday prosecutors had ordered two of the suspects, from the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, detained for questioning for a renewable 15-day period, and that the third was under house arrest.
Two of the suspects had also travelled to Mali, where French troops battled Al-Qaeda-inspired militants, MENA reported.
According to Ibrahim, Assadi had instructed the suspects to coordinate with two other alleged militants before their capture last October after a firefight that killed a gunman in a Cairo apartment.
Those two, also alleged to have Al-Qaeda links, are now on trial.
Fuad Allam, a retired interior ministry general who helped crack down on Islamist militants in the 1980s, said he believed militants identifying with Al-Qaeda have begun to coalesce after the Arab Spring uprisings.
Thanks Obama ! Thanks Hillary ! "The terror cells (in the region) are beginning to gather, they seem to have an organisation."
One of the suspects arrested in October allegedly had links to an attack last September 11 on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed ambassador Chris Stevens.
Egypt has previously announced arresting Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the country, which has seen a low-level Islamist insurgency and militant attacks on tourist sites over the past three decades.
Some veteran Egyptian Islamist militants are now in Al-Qaeda's leadership. Most prominent is Ayman al-Zawahiri, who heads the extremist organisation founded by Osama bin Laden.
Others had been jailed and recanted violence before their release following the 2011 uprising.
There has been a resurgence in militant attacks since the uprising, confined to the sparsely populated Sinai peninsula, in which both Egyptian troops and neighbouring Israel have been targeted.
(AFP)
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