Egypt Muslim Brotherhood Leader Arrested in Cairo

CAIRO,(ST) _ Interim Egyptian President Adli Mansour declared a three-day national mourning all over Egypt after the terrorist attack on the two buses carrying Egyptian soldiers near Rafah, North Sinai.

Egyptian television reported that Mansour decided the mourning to have had started on Monday , when 25 Egyptian soldiers of the Central Security Forces were killed by an armed terrorist group while returning from northern Sinai.

In a separate incident, another police officer was killed in the north Sinai town of el-Arish.

In response to the attacks, the Rafah border post into Gaza was closed and security increased at checkpoints on the peninsula.

Attacks by Islamist militants on the Egyptian security forces have surged in northern Sinai since 2011 – they have been close to daily in recent weeks.

As a result the Egyptian military recently intensified a crackdown against militants in the region.

The National Association for Change held an informal mass funeral in Tahrir Square for 25 Egyptian soldiers who were killed by a terrorist group in Sinai on Monday.

Holding an informal funeral “affirms the people’s support for the army and the police in their open war against terrorists linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and to other groups that believe societies are un-Islamic”.

The brutal massacre against those soldiers “is proof that the terrorist killers do not belong to the soil of this country”, said Ahmed Taha al-Naqr, the association’s spokesman. 

Naqr pointed to the incitement to violence and killing coming from Brotherhood leaders and these groups’ confession of involvement in terrorist operations in Sinai, Naqr said in a statement on Monday.

This massacre undoubtedly confirms that the Brotherhood and the groups in allegiance with it are waging an open war against the nation, Naqr stated.

He also noted that these groups seek political and military foreign intervention in Egypt.

They pose “a grave danger to Egyptian national security and they must be dealt with on that basis”, Naqr added.

A state of emergency is in force amid wider turmoil following a crackdown on Islamists in which hundreds have died.

Thirty-six protesters died in a prison van in the capital Cairo on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Egyptian prosecutors have ordered the ousted President Mohammed Morsi be detained for a further 15 days while they investigate fresh allegations against him.

He has reportedly been accused of complicity in acts of violence against protesters outside the presidential palace last December.

And separately, a lawyer for Hosni Mubarak has said he hopes the ousted President could be released from prison within the next two days.

Lawyer Fareed al-Dib told the BBC that Mubarak had been cleared of one corruption charge and they were waiting for the court to check whether he still had to be held in custody on other counts.

Mubarak is facing a retrial for corruption and complicity in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising which ended in his removal from power.

More than 830 people, including 102 police and soldiers, are reported to have been killed since Wednesday, when the army cleared protest camps set up by Morsi supporters, many of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The European Union announced that its foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to cut some of the billions of euros in aid pledged to Egypt.

In the US, the Obama administration has already cancelled joint military exercises planned for next month and is under pressure to cut off all aid.

EU special envoy Bernardino Leon said the ministers would consider a variety of options – including an arms embargo – but would work from the premise that a political solution to the crisis in Egypt is possible.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, speaking on a trip to Sudan, said he believed the country was “on the right path”, despite the current crisis.

On the other hand the Egyptian police yesterday arrested the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie in Cairo.

AFP quoted an Egyptian security source as saying that. “Security services arrested Mohamed Badie leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, accompanied by leaders of the group and six of his bodyguards and aides near Rabeya Adaweya area.”

The source added that “Badie  and his companions were taken to a security apparatus in preparation for interrogation,” stressing that he deported to Tora prison.”

 

T. Fateh