Egyptian forces combing Sinai for vehicles allegedly used in in launch of katyusha rockets in fatal rocket barrage on Israel and Jordan.


Published 18:40 05.08.10


Egyptian officials are searching the Sinai peninsula for two trucks that Egypt suspects were used in a rocket attack that hit Israel and Jordan, security sources in Sinai said on Thursday.

The sources, who declined to be named, were reluctant to elaborate further on the investigation and declined to identify which part of the Sinai was under scrutiny, what kind of trucks they were looking for or what prompted the operation.

There was no official comment immediately available.

Rockets hit Red Sea ports in Israel and Jordan on Monday, killing one Jordanian civilian and injuring three others. No Israelis were killed or injured. Police from both countries said the rockets were fired from Egypt's Sinai desert peninsula.

Egypt said at first it was unlikely that the rockets were fired from Sinai since the largely empty, desert region was very mountainous. It did not at that time indicate where it believed they were fired from.

Egypt accused unnamed Gaza militants of being behind the attacks.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman of the Hamas Islamist militant group which controls the Gaza Strip, rejected the Egyptian accusations which he said were politically motivated and lacked evidence. Israel blamed the attack on Hamas.



http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egypt-hunts-trucks-linked-to-eilat-rocket-attack-1.306240