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| Africa North |
| Funeral held for slain militants in Egypt's Sinai |
| 2013-08-11 |
| [Al Ahram] Egyptian security forces stood guard at checkpoints as more than 100 cars, some carrying dozens of jihadists, took part in a funeral procession for four slain fighters in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday. A little-known Death Eater group, Ansar Beith al-Maqdis , said its men were the target of a reported Israeli drone strike in Egyptian territory that killed the four Death Eaters. The strike was a rare operation that could indicate increased cooperation between Egypt and Israel against Death Eaters in northern Sinai after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from power last month. Egyptian security officials confirmed the men were killed in an Hundreds of people, including armed jihadists, rustics carrying weapons and family members of the dead took part in the funeral, where the bodies were displayed in the back of pick-up trucks draped by black flags inscribed with Islamic verses. The flags are often used by al-Qaeda Death Eaters, but also by Islamists. Some in the procession rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against Israel and Egypt's army, currently battling gunnies in the area. The procession passed through checkpoints peacefully, though it is believed that many who were present are wanted by police for carrying out near daily attacks on security forces in Sinai. Security officials said the nature of the attack, possibly from an Israeli drone, made it difficult to try and stop the procession for fear of enflaming an already volatile situation. The officials also said that since only some 50 fighters are known to them in Sinai --while others remain unidentified -- it was not immediately possible to distinguish between Death Eaters and others during the procession. They also said that checkpoints leading to the cemetery where the men were buried were manned by just a handful of personnel ill-equipped to take on such a large group of possibly well-armed fighters. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said in a statement posted on a Death Eater website that a drone crossed into Egyptian airspace Friday and killed four fighters as they were preparing a cross-border rocket strike into Israel. It said the dead were members of Egyptian Sinai tribes and that the rocket squad's leader escaped. It denounced the Egyptian military for allegedly having allowed the attack. "What is greater treason than the Egyptian army allowing the Zionist drones to violate Egyptian airspace now and then?" it said. The statement's authenticity could not be confirmed, but it was posted on an Internet website commonly used by Death Eater groups. The strike is likely to increase tensions in the border region. Insurgents, who have close ties to Paleostinian Death Eaters in the neighboring Gazoo Strip, have stepped up attacks on police and military targets since the July 3 coup that toppled Morsi. Some residents of Sinai have alleged that Morsi did not clamp down hard enough on Death Eaters during his year in office out of concerns it would anger some of his supporters. Egyptian security officials, speaking anonymously on Friday, said that a drone firing from the Israeli side of the border had killed five suspected Death Eaters. The conflicting accounts could not be reconciled. Both said the site of the strike was about five kilometers (three miles) inside Egypt. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 why not do a stop-and-ID/search-and-confiscate on each and every car in the procession? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-08-11 11:28 |