Jailan Halawi sifts through the sparse details emerging about a terror cell said to have been broken up by Egyptian security forces The Interior Ministry last week issued a statement announcing it had broken a terrorist cell comprising members of various nationalities. Eight French and two Belgian nationals were deported. On Sunday, 10 December, the French Anti- Terror police announced they had freed the eight men expelled from Egypt. The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's office also announced the two deported Belgians, both of Moroccan origin, would not be placed in custody. No further details were divulged about the suspects, none of whom had any prior criminal record. Information is equally sparse on those who remain in custody pending interrogation by state security prosecutors. According to security officials the cell was recruiting operatives to go to Iraq and carry out attacks against American and European targets. It was, in addition, planning to target tourists elsewhere. Members of the cell, arrested in November, are reported to have been operating in Cairo and Alexandria under the guise of being religious students. According to the ministry's statement, "suspects were seeking to recruit others, teaching them destructive beliefs and urging them to travel to Iraq to carry out operations." The ministry did not give any name for the network or the exact number of those arrested. However security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the cell included 20 members: five Egyptians, two Tunisians, two Syrians, eight French, two Belgians and an American. But according to the official Egyptian news agency MENA the suspects included nine French citizens, two Belgians, two Syrians, a Tunisian woman and an undisclosed number of Egyptians. Security sources have been quoted as saying that the suspects told interrogators they belonged to the Iraqi-based Jihad group that has undertaken operations against US troops and also been involved in the kidnapping of foreign nationals in Iraq. The suspects are said to have received orders from their Iraqi-based leadership to recruit students studying Sharia (Islamic law) at Al-Azhar University, with one cell member, a French national of Tunisian origin named Abu Hamza, allegedly establishing a religious school in the coastal city of Marsa Matruh that aimed to recruit Egyptians and foreigners to be sent to Iraq. The cell, says the source, was founded in Egypt by Safy Bou Reda, a French national of Algerian origin who, following his return to France, was tried and sentenced to five years in jail on charges of leading a terrorist group. Meanwhile, the Algerian authorities this week arrested five suspects believed to have connections with the Jihad group. They, too, are alleged to have been seeking recruits to travel to Iraq. Egyptian police are also thought to have arrested four French nationals on terror charges last year. They were deported after being interrogated by the Egyptian authorities. It is not yet clear whether the suspects currently being detained have any connection with the suicide attacks in the Sinai Peninsula that targeted the Red Sea resort of Taba in 2004, Sharm El-Sheikh a year later and Dahab in April this year. On 5 December three Islamist militants were sentenced to death for their role in the October 2004 triple bombings in the Red Sea resort of Taba that left 34 dead. Investigations revealed the Sinai attacks to have been the work of a militant group known as Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, or Unification and Jihad, a name first used by an Iraqi group linked to Al-Qaeda. The Egyptian cell, though, was not thought to have any foreign links until the Interior Ministry announced in May that Palestinian militants had taken part in planning the Dahab bombings. Security officials said several members of the Egyptian group responsible for the attacks had trained in the Gaza Strip. No fingers, though, were pointed at Al-Qaeda despite the fact that the Dahab bombings came a day after Osama bin Laden's call for Muslims to support Al-Qaeda in fighting what he termed "a war against Islam". Security forces have been on the highest alert in the Sinai Peninsula for some time now, with sweeping operations aimed at rounding up fugitives and suspected terrorists hiding in the rugged mountains; a common occurrence. In September the Ministry of Interior said it was pursuing a group of Egyptians and Palestinians who had sneaked across the border with the aim of launching attacks along Egypt's Red Sea coast. No further details given.
