EGYPT: Interior minister Habib El-Adli says government has proof that the Army of Islam was behind the New Year's Day bombing

Record ID: 353388

  • Title: EGYPT: Interior minister Habib El-Adli says government has proof that the Army of Islam was behind the New Year's Day bombing
  • Date: 24th January 2011
  • Summary: ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (FILE - JANUARY 1, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF 'ALQEDDISIN CHURCH' CLOSE OF A MOSQUE MINARET SECURITY FORCES SEIZING THE INCIDENT AREA
  • Embargoed: 8th February 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt, Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4QQLX4OT1BNDO0KHQBWQR3IGT
  • Story Text: Egypt's interior minister said on Sunday (January 23) the government had proof that the Army of Islam, a Palestinian group linked to al Qaeda, was behind the New Year's Day bombing of a church that killed 23 people.
    President Hosni Mubarak, in an address broadcast on state TV, praised the police for their efforts to identify those responsible and said the attackers had sought to sow discord between Egyptian Copts and Muslims.
    "The latest terroristic attack which happened in Alexandria represents terrorism's useless attempt to return to Egypt with evil through a new approach and a new mechanism. A new approach that tries to trap the Egyptian Muslims and Coptic seeking to separate them into parts and to harm their solidarity as citizens of one homeland, which exposed many years ago to terrorism that never distinguish between religions or blood of the two-fold community of Christians and Muslims," Mubarak said.
    The Army of Islam praised the attack but denied involvement.
    Egyptian officials had suspected an al Qaeda-inspired bomber was behind the blast that ripped through a crowd outside the church in the city of Alexandria, prompting protests by Christians that the state had not done enough to protect them.
    An Iraq-based al Qaeda group had called for attacks on Egypt's Coptic Christians, who make up one tenth of the population, before the church bombing.
    "If elements of the Palestinian Army of Islam, linked to al Qaeda, thought they had hidden behind elements that were recruited, we have decisive proof of their heinous involvement in planning and carrying out such a villainous terrorist act," Interior Minister Habib el-Adli said in a speech.
    The bomber died in the blast, which wounded 97 people.
    Egyptian state security had pointed to possible foreign involvement and officials said they were investigating several Palestinians who were perceived as possible threats.
    A spokesman for the Army of Islam, which considers al-Qaeda's leaders as spiritual mentors, told Reuters in Gaza that the group "has no connection to the church attack in Egypt, though we praise those who did it".
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