[ 2011-07-30 ]

Militants attack gas pipeline in Egypt's Sinai
CAIRO (AFP) - Unidentified gunmen on Saturday
attacked a terminal on the gas pipeline to Israel
for the fifth time since February, a security
official said.

Gunmen on motorbikes and cars lobbed grenades and
tried to storm the terminal at Al-Shulaq in north
Sinai but were confronted by armed forces, leading
to clashes.

Witnesses said the gunmen managed to flee.

"Unidentified gunmen attacked the natural gas
terminal on the pipeline to Israel. There was no
gas in the pipeline since it was blown up on July
11," the security official said.

It was the fifth attack on the gas pipeline since
February, a time of political upheaval when an
uprising toppled former president Hosni Mubarak
and saw power handed over to a military council.

Earlier this month, saboteurs bombed the pipeline
cutting supplies to Israel and Jordan.

Egypt supplies about 40 percent of Israel's
natural gas which is used to produce electricity.

Jordan, which buys 95 percent of its energy needs,
imports about 240 million cubic feet (6.8 million
cubic metres) of Egyptian gas a day, or 80 percent
of its electricity requirements.

The attack comes a day after clashes in the nearby
city of El-Arish that left five people dead.

Armed forces arrested 12 men, including three
Palestinians, suspected of involvement in an
attack on an El-Arish police station, said north
Sinai security chief Saleh al-Masri.

Three civilians, an army officer and a police
officer were killed in the clashes, and 19 people
wounded.

Earlier on Friday, around 150 men in trucks and on
motorbikes rampaged through El-Arish, firing
assault rifles in the air, driving terrified
residents into their homes.

They rode through the deserted streets of the city
waving black flags which read "There is no God but
Allah", before attempting to storm the police
station.

Earlier, the masked men used a bulldozer to damage
a statue of the late president Anwar Sadat, who
was assassinated by Islamist militants in 1981.

The violence came after a peaceful demonstration
at noon in one of the city's squares, part of
countrywide protests on Friday by Islamists who
want any future constitution to assert that Egypt
is a Muslim state.

Source - AFP

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