In April 2007, Egyptian authorities secretly arrested 35 members of a jihadist group with ties to al-Qaeda. The news and details of their arrests were not made public until July 14th.
• We believe the extent of al-Qaeda’s influence among militant-minded youths in Egypt is significant. We are mostly concerned about the ease and frequency with which these militants communicate and share information over jihadist websites.
• We are also concerned over the Egyptian group’s financial and logistical ties to the al-Qaeda network in Iraq. We believe some elements of the group were planning to send fighters to Iraq in exchange for funding potential attacks in Egypt.
• The arrested group’s leader, Khaled Mahmoud Ahmed, remains at large and is seeking refuge via al-Qaeda sympathizers in the currently Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. He will continue to seek refuge and evade authorities in the near to mid-term.
The Group Reaches Out
According to the Egyptian authorities, the arrested men are suspected of joining a group that sought to topple the Egyptian government and carry out attacks financed by an al-Qaeda-affiliated organization in Iraq. Officials also noted that some of the men were thought to be planning to send recruits to fight American forces in Iraq.
Among those being held is al-Qaeda senior member Mohammed Abdel Hamid, who was charged with “spreading al-Qaeda ideology and planning attacks against tourists,” according to Al Masry Al Youm, an independent Egyptian daily.
The group promoted its goals on the Internet, through a jihadist website allegedly created by the group called, Sawt al-Khalifa (Voice of the Caliphate). This is significant because elements of the group reportedly communicated with other al-Qaeda loyalists, enabling them to recruit other members and to receive virtual training on the use of explosives.
• By using Sawr al-Khalifa and other jihadist websites, the group has established contacts based in Afghanistan, German, Austria, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Recent Chain of Terrorist Events
The Egyptian government is worried that a recent spike in terrorist-related incidents may disrupt the nation’s tourism sector, the breadwinning industry for Egypt. The following is a list of recent Egyptian terror-related events:
• July 14, 2007: Several bomb treats were made against the Shubra al-Kheima metro station in Cairo. As a result, state authorities have increased security measures to include bomb squads, sniffer dogs, and metal detectors at metro stations around the capital.
• July 4, 2007: Al-Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released “Advice of One Concerned,” where, among other things, called for an uprising within Cairo against the Egyptian government (Previous Report)
• June 25, 2007: Mohamed Hakaima, an al-Qaeda militant and former leader of Egypt’s Gama’a Islamiya (GI) and who is believed to be in Afghanistan, called for attacks on Israeli and Western targets in Egypt, in support of Hamas.
• February 23, 2007: Egyptian security forces found a ton of TNT explosives stashed in 34 plastic sacks that were waiting to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip. Just days before, security officials arrested four Palestinians, who crossed the border into Egypt via an underground tunnel wearing explosive belts, and planned to target Israeli tourists in the Sinai (Previous Report).
• December 4, 2006: Egyptian police broke up an international terrorist cell that was recruiting operatives to go to Iraq and allegedly planning terrorist attacks in Middle Eastern countries (Previous Report).
Scene of Attacks in Egypt
Egypt has been the scene of several terrorist attacks in recent years. Last April, the Sinai beach resort town of Dahab, was attacked in a simultaneous triple bomb explosion that killed twenty people and wounded ninety . In July 2005, seventy people were killed in the tourist hotspot, Sharm el Shiekh and thirty-four people were killed in the Taba attacks in October 2004 .
Between 1981 and the present day, the Egyptian government has released some 20,000 to 30,000 militant Islamists detained in various Egyptian prisons. These militants are largely unemployed and bitter over their imprisonment and “black listed” identities.
We remain concerned over the potential for these “dormant” militants to revive the terror scene in Egypt in the near to long term.
