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World Jewish News
Egypt hunting for 10 Hezbollah men in Sinai
13.04.2009
Egyptian police are tracking down 10 members of an alleged Hezbollah cell believed to be hiding out with Bedouin in the rugged Sinai peninsula, a security official said Monday.
The men are thought to be Lebanese and part of a group of 49 members of an alleged Hezbollah cell that the government announced is plotting to attack Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the men had taken shelter in the central Sinai town of al-Nakhl.
Authorities fear the suspects may either try to escape north into Gaza some 200 kilometers away through the many secret tunnels or head south to the tourist resorts on the coast.
There is little security presence in the vast mountainous interior of the Sinai where some Bedouin make their living through drug cultivation and smuggling. Most residents of the impoverished peninsula do not benefit from the tourist resorts, such as Sharm el-Sheik, along the southern coast.
On Monday, the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported that a Hezbollah agent arrested in Egypt last week told investigators his cell was planning attacks on Israeli targets to avenge the killing of terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh.
The affair came after the Counter-Terrorism Bureau in the Israel's Prime Minister's Office said Tuesday it had "grave and immediate" intelligence concerning Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip who are operating in Sinai under Hezbollah direction and sponsorship and seek to abduct Israelis vacationing in the area during Pesach.
Источник: Haaretz
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