Dan Ephron, back in August, reported on a growing Israeli concern about terrorists in the Sinai. Egypt reponded with air strikes at suspected jihadi groups. This was followed by a large force sweep of some 15,000 troops and a relative calm ensued.
Now al Qaeda linked groups, it is suspected, have started blooming in the desert.
Within the last month or so we note:- Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri called for concluding the revolutions in Egypt and Syria with the institution of shari’a. The liberation of Jerusalem and Palestine, he adds, begins in Egypt and Syria.
- Ansar Bet Al-Maqdes, a mostly Bedouin Salafi-jihadist group active in the Sinai Peninsula, took responsibility for a September 20th terrorist attack on the Egypt-Israel border in which an Israeli soldier was killed. The jihadists reported it as a retaliation for the "bloody jewish massacre of peaceful Muslim in the Palestine Province of Gaza". They called the attackers "courageous Mujahideen."
- A new Islamic group, Jihadist Islamic Da’wa, is established in Egypt. It is headed by prominent Salafi-jihadist Sheikh Muhammad Al-Zawahiri, brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
I can't find U.S. Terrorism List references to either Ansar Bet Al-Maqdes or Jihadist Islamic Da’wa, but it sounds like they might be coming to a front page near you.
December 15, 2012 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact
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