CAIRO – Salafists group in North Sinai denounced on Tuesday deadly attacks launched on el-Arish city on Friday and associated clashes where 25 civilians, army and police officers were killed and injured, the official Middle East News Agency reported. The group said they had no relation whatever to these acts, stressing that they reject violence as a way to dialogue. About 100 armed men rode through the town of el-Arish on Friday on motorcycles and in cars, waving flags with Islamic slogans and firing in the air, Sinai security sources had said. They then attacked a police station, engaging in a shootout with the police and army in which an army officer was killed. Salafist activist Moustafa Azzam pointed out that the Friday's march which the group organised in el-Arish was peaceful 100 per cent, adding that the march was void of armed members. Azzam explained that the aim of Friday's march was to call for the revolution demands. Activist Ammar Saleh Gouda emphasised that salafists had protected the revolution form thugs and outlaws. Hussein el-Qaiem, an activist, said that Salafists are seeking to achieve security and social justice in Egypt. The group declared in a statement that the killing of innocent people is an illegal crime and a barbaric act.
