A Sinai-based militant group said on Saturday that one of its founding members was killed in a car accident.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, in a statement published by the Associated Press, said the militant, Tawfiq Mohamed Freij, died when a bomb he was carrying was set off by a car accident on Tuesday.
According to the statement, Freij masterminded the group’s tactic of blowing up pipelines to stop Egyptian gas supplies to Israel. The statement also claims he was in charge of a failed attack on the interior ministr in September.
Since the beginning of this year, the Sinai gas pipeline has been bombed at least five times.
Attacks on pipelines over the past three years have repeatedly forced a halt to Egypt’s gas exports to Israel and Jordan.
Egypt stopped supplying gas to Israel in April 2013, citing business disputes.
The country has witnessed militant attacks in the Sinai Peninsula since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi along with bombings and drive-by shootings targeting police and army personnel in several governorates.
Egypt’s army is waging a broad campaign on militants in the country.
Source : Ahram online
