http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=OTk0NzQ0NzI4
Palestinian group behind church bombing, says Egypt Published Date: January 24, 2011 CAIRO: Egyptian Interior Minister Habib Al-Adly said yesterday that a Palestinian group was behind the New Year's church attack in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria that killed more than 20 people. "The Palestinian Islamic Army, which has links to Al-Qaeda, is behind the attack on the Al-Qiddissin church in Alexandria," Adly said in a speech to mark Police Day, carried live on state television. President Hosni Mubarak took to the stage to congratulate the police "for finding the perpetrators of the terrorist act in Alexandria. In a swift response, the Palestinian Army of Islam denied any involvement in the deadly attack. "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." An Egyptian security official told AFP that five Egyptians were arrested around 10 days ago in Alexandria in connection with the attack. During questioning, the members of this group said that the planning of the attack had come from abroad," the source said. Addressing senior officials and members of the police force, Mubarak said the attack had tried to target Egypt's unity and firmly rejected foreign calls for the protection of the country's Christians as "interference." "The latest attack in Alexandria, represents a pitiful attempt to bring (terrorism) back to Egypt", this time in "an bid to stir division between the Copts and the Muslims. 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 yesterday put the death toll at 23, with scores more wounded. Previously, the death toll stood at 21. The day after the attack on the Alexandria church, Mubarak said the act was carried out by foreigners, an assertion he reiterated in his Police Day speech. Terrorism is alien to our society, and has foreign fingerprints," he said."We will not allow terrorism to shake our stability." The Egyptian leader also lashed out at Western countries who called for more protection for the country's Christian minority. Egypt's Christians, who make up 10 percent of the 80-million population, have been the target of several attacks and have repeatedly accused the authorities of systematic discrimination. The constitution has laid out principles of citizenship as the basis for equality of all Egyptians in their rights and duties," Mubarak said. "I say to those, some from friendly countries, who call for the protection of Copts of Egypt, I say to them that the time for foreign protection and tutelage is gone, and will not return. "We will not accept any pressure or interference in Egypt's affairs," he said. Egypt has been rocked by a spate of terrorist attacks between 2004 and 2006, targeting lucrative tourist destinations on the popular Red Sea coast of Sinai. No one has claimed responsibility for the Alexandria church attack, which followed threats to Egypt's Copts from the Al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq that claimed an October 31 attack on a Baghdad church. In 2010, six Copts were gunned down as they came out of a Christmas mass in the southern city of Naga Hammadi, in an attack that also left one Muslim policeman dead. 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. - AFP [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
