Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Egypt Seizes Another Major Weapons Cache from Libya Headed for Gaza


Egypt Seizes Another Major Weapons Cache from Libya Headed for Gaza


Egyptian security forces on Friday seized a large stash weapons, including rockets and automatic machine guns, smuggled into the country from neighboring Libya and allegedly bound for the Gaza Strip, Egypt's interior minister said. 
Gen. Mohammed Ibrahim said security forces acting on a tip uncovered the weapons in a car and truck on the highway near the Mediterranean resort city of Marsa Matrouh, which is along the coastal highway that runs to the Libyan border. After chasing down the vehicles, one of the smugglers was killed in an exchange of fire, Ibrahim said. 
Among the munitions confiscated were 138 grad rockets and some 7,000 rounds of ammunition, according to Ibrahim, who called the bust the "biggest" in the history of the Interior Ministry. 
He said the weapons were smuggled from the Libyan city of Sirte, the hometown of the country's late dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the last regime stronghold to fall in the Libyan civil war last year. He added one of the smugglers said the weapons were bound for Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and from there to the Gaza Strip.

Over the past two months, there have been a number of reports related to the flow of weapons from Libya through the Sinai into Gaza.

In May, an Egyptian security official said that “Sinai is now outside of security control, and efforts exerted by the military and police forces have aimed to restore security, especially because a week ago Israel said Egypt is more dangerous to Israel than Iran, which the Jewish state accuses of trying to build nuclear weapons…One of the greatest concerns is the security vacuum in Sinai, and that militant Islamists now have a foothold [there] with the collapse of security in the region after the ouster of Mubarak.”

http://challahhuakbar.blogspot.com/2012/07/egypt-seizes-another-major-weapons.html

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