AFP - The Palestinian Army of Islam militant group on Sunday denied involvement
in a deadly attack on an Egyptian church, rejecting accusations by the Cairo
government.
"The Army of Islam has no relation, whether close or distant, to the attack on
the Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt," a spokesman for the group, who gave
his name as Abu Muthanna, told AFP.
"The Mossad (Israeli intelligence) was responsible for the attack," he said.
Earlier Sunday, Egypt's Interior Minister Habib al-Adly announced that the
small Palestinian group was behind the New Year's church attack in the
Mediterranean city of Alexandria, which killed more than 20 people.
He made the accusation in a speech to mark Police Day, carried live on Egyptian
state television.
President Hosni Mubarak took to the stage to congratulate the police "for
finding the perpetrators of the terrorist act in Alexandria."
On January 1, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a church in the
Mediterranean city as worshippers emerged from a New Year's Eve mass.
Egypt's official MENA news agency on Sunday put the death toll at 23, with
scores more wounded. Previously, the death toll stood at 21.
The Palestinian group accused of perpetrating the attack is a small outfit that
espouses Salafist ideals, an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to
the practices of the faith's early days.
Along with other tiny Salafist factions in Gaza, the Army of Islam is believed
to have sought or be seeking ties with Al-Qaeda, and has clashed with the Hamas
rulers of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas reportedly cut ties with the Army of Islam in 2007, when the group
claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston.
At the time, Hamas said it had severed ties with the group and helped free
Johnston after four months in captivity.
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