Bloodthirsty Liberal

Tora Bora on Sinai

Well, looky here. Egypt is shocked–shocked–to find terrorists in its midst:

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Our military sources reveal the battle is raging on Jebel Magharah, 22km SW of El Arish and west of a former al Qaeda base on Jebel Hilal (alt. 654 meters). The fortified al Qaeda stronghold on Jebel Magharah is beating back an Egyptian assault on the mountain site. Signals passed among the troops describe the operation as the “Tora Bora of Sinai,” naming it after the fierce epic US-al Qaeda engagement in Afghanistan three years ago. Both sides have sustained casualties.

Egypt launched a large-scale clean-up operation against al Qaeda’s Sinai bases last week after three bomb blasts killed at least 34 people at the Sinai resort of Dahab Tuesday. They are also reported to be raiding more new al Qaeda havens around St. Catherine’s monastery and Wadi Paran in the south.

In fact, the whole region is soiling its drawers:

The Egyptian and Jordanian rulers, accompanied by their intelligence chiefs, met urgently Saturday, April 29, to discuss the threat to regional stability posed by the al Qaeda in Iraq’s chief’s expansion and stepped-up operations in Egypt, Sinai, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Jordan.

DEBKAfile’s sources report Israel was not invited to the summit, although squarely in Zarqawi’s sights, because its new leaders show scant interest in the encroachment of his cells right up to Israel’s borders.
Presented to Mubarak and the king were updates on the penetration of al Qaeda cells into the Egyptian heartland and the towns on the banks of the Suez Canal. They heard about the heavy recruitment by Zarqawi of Palestinians resident in Jordan and northern Sinai.

Friday night, April 28, Zarqawi’s cell in Gaza announced it is waiting for the final signal to execute the order received in mid-week to “revive the traditional sacrifice of apostates” against four Palestinian targets.

They are identified as Fatah followers of Mahmoud Abbas: former interior minister and Gaza strongman Muhammad Dahlan, prominent West Bank figure Yasser Abd Rabbo, deputy chief of Gaza’s Preventive Security Service Samir Mashrawi, and Abu Ali Shihin, an old Yasser Arafat crony from Rafah.

The above provides some interesting background to this story:

The new Palestinian militia financed by the US and UK is described by DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources as meant to counter the 3,500-strong security force the Hamas government is building under the Gazan terrorist chief, Jamal Samhadana. Abu Mazen’s private army will be built around the Force 17 presidential guard, which served the late Yasser Arafat. Its manpower will be augmented by 40% to eventually match the force controlled by Hamas.

After Jordan exposed the Hamas plot against its senior officials, Abbas’s supporters were able to convince the US and British that their leader was in danger of his life at the hands of Hamas, Jihad Islami or al Qaeda elements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The two powers, who maintain secret agents on the West Bank, have informed Abbas through undercover channels that the money is available for setting up and training the new militia.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources note that this will be the fifth military force in a decade that the CIA and MI6 have created to buttress Palestinian government.
All four previous efforts petered out when most of the troops they trained defected to terrorist groups taking with them a large part of the military equipment they received.

Pray for Israel.