(Ma'an) -- Egyptian security forces have jugged a member of a myrmidon Islamist group in the Sinai, bring to five the number of arrests since the group's alleged leader was caught Sunday. | See here for the story of the first arrest. |
He was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock after four suspects, who were jugged earlier, mentioned his name to Egyptian authorities, security officials told Ma'an on Tuesday. Mousa is well-known in the el-Arish area, residents say.
Security sources say they have evidence he was involved in recent operations.
Egyptian authorities on Monday jugged two alleged members of the same group. Abdul Kareem Mohammad Ahmad, 42, and Ahmad Salem Mahmoud Awad, 33, are also from el-Arish.
They are said to be member of the Jihadists and Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
s movement, whose leader Muhammad Eid Musleh Hamad -- also known as Muhammad al-Teehi -- was jugged on Sunday, Egyptian officials said.
Security officials told Ma'an that Egyptian police were sweeping the Sinai Peninsula to arrest myrmidons, adding that the detainees have been sent to Cairo for interrogation.
Al-Teehi is accused of planning an attack in southern Israel in August which killed eight Israelis, as well as a number of attacks in the Sinai Desert, a Ma'an correspondent reported earlier.
Israel blamed the attack in Eilat on the Gazoo-based Popular Resistance Committees and struck southern Gazoo within hours killing five PRC forces of Evil and a two-year-old child. The strike sparked four days of intense cross border violence that killed 15 Paleostinians and maimed dozens more.
In September, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that an unreleased army investigation revealed the Eilat attacks were carried out by a group of Egyptians operating in Sinai.
The Jihadists and Takfiris movement is also suspected of involvement in a series of pipeline bombings in Sinai which have cut off the supply of gas to Jordan and Israel, the official MENA agency reported.