Abducted Israeli, Norwegian tourists freed in Egypt

CAIRO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli man and a Norwegian woman who were kidnapped Friday in Egypt's governorate of South Sinai have been freed, a local security source told Xinhua Tuesday.

The release came after two days of negotiations between the security authorities and the kidnappers under the mediation of tribal elders, the source said.

The freed hostages, both in good conditions, are going back to their home countries on separate ways -- the Israeli man through the port of Taba adjacent to Israel and the Norwegian woman heading for Cairo for a flight home.

The security authorities confirmed that the kidnappers had been pressing for the release of their jailed family members in exchange for freeing the hostages, who were held by them in a cave area in central Sinai.

The two were abducted by armed tribesman when they were travelling on Taba-Dahb highway of South Sinai four days ago.

"Armed tribesmen intercepted the tourists' car and then forced the two tourists and their driver into their truck," but the driver was released shortly, sources told Xinhua after the Friday kidnapping.

Kidnapping of tourists in Sinai by Bedouins repeated lately, but almost all of them were released without casualties with the help of tribe leaders.

from XINHUA
2013-03-26 15:11:51

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US ambassador to Libya, three staff killed in rocket attack

(Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff were killed in a rocket attack on Tuesday night that targeted his car in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, a Libyan official said on Wednesday.

"The American ambassador and three staff members were killed when gunmen fired rockets at them," the official in Benghazi told Reuters. Asked about the deaths, a U.S. Embassy employee in Tripoli said: "We have no information regarding this." The employee said the embassy could confirm the death of one person.



The Libyan official said the U.S. ambassador had been on his way to a safer venue after protesters attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and opened fire, killing a staff member, in protest at a U.S. film that they deemed blasphemous to the Prophet Mohammad.

The official said the ambassador and three other staff were killed when gunmen fired rockets at his car. He said the U.S. Embassy had sent a military plane to transport the bodies to Tripoli to fly them to the United States.

Gunmen assaulted the Benghazi compound on Tuesday evening, clashing with Libyan security forces, who withdrew under heavy fire. The attackers fired at the buildings while others threw handmade bombs into the compound, setting off small explosions. Small fires were burning around the compound.

The assault followed a protest in neighboring Egypt where demonstrators scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy, tore down the American flag and burned it during a protest over the same film which they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

from REUTERS
BEIRUT | Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:42am EDT
(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Egyptian police, soldier injured in Sinai attack

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Three Egyptian policemen and a soldier were injured near the Sinai town of Sheikh Zuwaid on Saturday when armed men fired a rocket-propelled grenade at their convoy during an operation against militants following the killing of 16 border guards.

The attack took place while the police were on their way back to the city of al-Arish after arresting two suspects at the border town of Rafah, a security source said.

"The forces were entrapped by extremists when they were returning from a raid in Rafah ... one armoured vehicle was targeted by a rocket," the source said. They could not identify or pursue the attackers, he added.

Disorder has been spreading in turbulent North Sinai, a region awash with guns that has felt neglected by the central government since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last year in a popular uprising. Mubarak's government had worked closely with Israel to keep the border region under control.

Egypt blamed the August 5 border attack on "Islamic militants" and has launched a joint army-police operation that has raided militant hideouts, arrested their members and seized weapons.

A Sinai-based Islamist militant organisation, the Salafi Jihadi Group, warned the Egyptian army last week that the crackdown on jihadists in the area would force it to fight back.

There have been frequent reports of attacks on police and army checkpoints since the crackdown began, but often without casualties.

from REUTERS
Sat Aug 18, 2012 12:06pm GMT

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Bedouins free kidnapped U.S. tourists in Egypt: security

Egyptian Bedouin tribesmen on Monday released two U.S. tourists who had been held in captivity for three days in the Sinai Peninsula, a senior security official told AFP.

“The two have been released after successful negotiations with the Bedouins and they are now in the North Sinai security headquarters,” the official said.
The negotiations were being mediated by Bedouin elders, the official said, but refused to elaborate on the terms of the deal.

The lead kidnapper, Germy Abu Masouh, abducted the two -- an American man and a woman -- and their guide in Egypt’s lawless Sinai on Friday, demanding the release of his uncle who is being held on drugs charges.

General Ahmed Bakr, the head of North Sinai security, confirmed that the three had been released, in statements carried by the official MENA news agency.

“They are all in good health,” he said, adding that the U.S. embassy had been notified of the Americans’ release.

“Preparations are being made to transport them to Cairo,” Bakr said.
The sparsely populated Sinai region is where Egypt’s most lucrative tourist resorts are located, but it is also home to a mostly poor and disaffected Bedouin population.

Since an uprising overthrew President Hosni Mubarak last year, the Sinai has grown ever more lawless, with attacks on police stations and 14 bombings targeting a pipeline that exports gas to neighboring Israel and Jordan.

The Bedouin have pressed hard for the release of captive tribesmen they say have been sentenced unfairly on charges ranging from terrorism to drugs dealing and people trafficking across the border into Israel.

They have done so in increasingly frequent tourist kidnappings over the past year.

In May, a tourist from Singapore was kidnapped for several hours. Two American tourists kidnapped near the Red Sea resort of Dahab in May were released after less than 24 hours in captivity.

All of the previous hostages have been released unhurt.


from AL ARABIYA NEWS
Last Updated: Mon Jul 16, 2012 21:41 pm (KSA) 18:41 pm (GMT)

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Al Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for attack in Israel

Members of the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, from a propaganda video obtained by the SITE Intelligence Group.

By Thomas Joscelyn - June 19, 2012  - LWJ

A jihadist organization calling itself the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC) has claimed responsibility for yesterday's cross border attack in Israel, according to the SITE Intel Group.
The attack was launched near a security fence that Israel is constructing along its border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. One Israeli civilian was killed after the attackers detonated an improvised explosive device and then opened fire on two vehicles carrying construction workers. At least two terrorists were killed during the raid.
In videos released by the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center, MSC members stand in front of al Qaeda-style flags. And, in a statement, the MSC dedicated the attack to slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "We present this blessed invasion ... to the soul of the lion of Islam, the reviver of jihad, and the raiser of the banner, Sheikh Mujahid Osama bin Muhammad bin Laden," the MSC says, according to a translation by SITE.

The MSC also dedicates the attack to "the Syrian Muslim jihadi people," to "all the mujahideen and their commanders and emirs in all the battlefields of jihad," and to the "Salafi Jihadi oppressed lions in the land of the Gaza glory."
The MSC repeats common jihadist talking points, saying it is waging jihad "to become a building block in the global project aiming for the return of the rightly-guided Caliphate and the institution of the pure Shariah."
The MSC identified the two fighters who led the raid in Israel as an Egyptian named Khalid Salah Abdul Hadi Jadullah (a.k.a. Abu Salah al Masri) and a Saudi named Adi Saleh Abdullah al Fudhayli al Hadhli (a.k.a Abu Hudhayfa al Hudhali).

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/06/al_qaeda-linked_grou.php#ixzz1yHPl3o5S

---

video:

by Al Arabiya News translated to English:

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/19/221590.html

“We announce the formation of the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Jerusalem as the foundation of a blessed Jihadi operation, with a clear path and features to be a brick in the global project of bringing back the [Islamic] caliphate,” one masked gunman said in the video.

“To the foes of God - the Jews - we say, you infidels must know that what is coming is different than what has preceded and we shall make you drink from the same poisonous glass you gave to the people of Islam in Jerusalem,” the gunman added.

The final part of the video contains recorded statements made by two individuals in armed uniform, one claiming to be an Egyptian and the other insinuating to be a Saudi.

“I am the living martyr by God’s will Abu Huthaifa al-Hathly from the Peninsula of Muhammad (PBUH). We shall leave shortly to undergo a double martyr operation on the border of Egypt with Occupied Palestine today Monday 28 Rajab 1433 coinciding 18-06-2012,” said one of the two armed men who – contrary to the same video - were recording unmasked.

The two reportedly opened fire towards a convoy of vehicles carrying Israeli construction workers to the place where they were building part of the vast border fence along the frontier, prompting Israeli troops in the area to fire back.

Initial reports said two of the gunmen were killed along with one of the Israeli construction workers.

The Israeli army confirmed that gunmen had opened fire on construction workers in the area of the border, but did not immediately confirm the toll.

“A terrorist squad opened gunfire and possibly also fired an anti-tank rocket at an area where (Israel) is constructing the border fence,” Israeli military spokesman Yoav Mordechai told Army Radio.

“Soldiers arrived on the scene and killed one terrorist,” he said.

Army Radio said that an Israeli workman was killed by the militants.

An Israeli military source confirmed one of the workmen, an Arab citizen of Israel, was killed by the gunmen.

In the most serious attack in the area since the Egyptian popular uprising, militants crossed over the Egyptian border and killed eight Israelis in August 2011.

On Saturday, at least two rockets were fired deep into southern Israel, causing no damage or casualties. It was not clear whether they were launched from Gaza or Sinai.

Overnight on Sunday, Israeli aircraft carried out a series of strikes in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the enclave. Medical sources in Gaza said seven people were wounded.


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Egypt confirms release of 2 kidnapped American tourists: U.S. official

Shaded relief map of the Sinai Peninsula, 1992, produced by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has confirmed to the United States the release of two American tourists who were kidnapped in the country's Sinai Peninsula, the U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Thursday.

"Egyptian officials have confirmed to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that the two U.S. citizens kidnapped on the Sinai Peninsula on May 30 have been released unharmed," Toner said in a statement.

"The U.S. Embassy has been in touch with the victims' families and is providing appropriate consular assistance," he added.

The two Americans were kidnapped Thursday morning by some local Bedouins on the Sinai Peninsula. The kidnappers demanded the release of a tribesman arrested in a drug case Wednesday.

This was the fourth kidnapping case in the area since February. Two Americans and three South Korean tourists were abducted by Bedouins in the area on Feb. 3 and Feb. 10 respectively.

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Two kidnapped Brazilian tourists in Egypt's Sinai released

CAIRO, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Two Brazilian tourists and an Egyptian tour guide had been released early Monday after being kidnapped for nine hours in South Sinai by Bedouin gunmen, a security source told Xinhua.

The Egyptian military forces and local police tried to rescue the tourists and their guide who were taken as hostages during their way back from Saint Catherine monastery to Sharm el-Sheihk with the help of local Bedouin sheikhs, the source added.

This was the third kidnapping case in the area since February. Two Americans and three South Korean tourists were abducted by Bedouins in the area on Feb. 3 and Feb. 10 respectively. The kidnappers demanded the release of their relatives who were jailed for involvement in terrorist activities.

On Friday, Bedouins in North Sinai ended their eight consecutive days of siege of the camp of an international peacekeeping force after negotiations with the authorities for similar demands.

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