One of Egypt's most prominent Islamist groups has denied making any alliance with al-Qaeda. "The Gamaa Islamiya in Egypt stresses the lack of truth in what Aljazeera aired by Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri about it joining al-Qaeda, and categorically denies this," the group said in a statement on its website.And a former official in Egypt's Gamaa Islamiya said that even if some members had joined al-Qaeda - as al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a video aired on Aljazeera on Saturday - it was unlikely that most would do so. The group fought a bloody campaign against the government in the 1990s to set up an Islamic state before declaring a truce in 1997.
Sheikh Abdel Akher Hammad, a former Gamaa leader, told Aljazeera on Sunday from Germany: "If [some] brothers ... have joined, then this is their personal view and I don't think that most Gamaa Islamiya members share that same opinion."