CAIRO: Major General Abdul Wahab Mabrouk, Governor of North Sinai, said that the bombing that took place at dawn on Wednesday at the “el-Sebeka” gas gathering station, in the al-Sabiel area south of el-Arish, and was the result of a “sabotage act” but it did not result in casualties. “The fire that resulted from the bombing had subsided to a large extent after the specialists closed various valves that control the access of gas to this point,” the governor told the Egyptian television Wednesday morning. He explained that the gathering station which was affected by the explosion feeds the gas tubes to outside Egypt, referring to Jordan and Israel, as well as being responsible for feeding some areas of Port Said with gas. Mabrouk pointed out that the responsible company had appointed additional personnel guarding the gathering station. An explosion took place through the gas pipeline that transports gas to Israel and Jordan in the early hours of Wednesday morning with the flames going up for more than 20 meters. A source told Reuters that an unknown armed gang attacked the gas pipeline, adding that the attack affected the flow of gas to both Israel and Jordan. The armed forces and relevant agencies have moved to the station but were unable to control the fire so far. An earlier attack occurred on the same pipeline which passes south of Arish in northern Sinai in early February, only five days after the outbreak of the revolution. Israel gets 40 percent of its needs of natural gas from Egypt under an agreement based on the peace treaty signed by both countries in 1979, according to reports. The Attorney General had ordered, on Saturday, the transmission of former Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi and six other former officials to trial on charges of wasting public funds associated with an agreement to export natural gas to Israel. The resolution said that the agreement has caused losses to Egypt worth more than $ 714 million and enabled the fugitive businessman Hussein Salem to achieve financial gains at the expense of the state. BM
