The Egyptian General Intelligence Service warned that a radical jihadi group is planning to launch terrorist attacks against the US and Israeli embassies in Cairo.
Tel Aviv had accused the same group, Global Jihad, of perpetrating an attack in Sinai against Egyptian border guards, which left 16 dead on 5 August.
Al-Masry Al-Youm obtained a copy of a top secret letter addressed to Major General Samy Sedhom, first assistant Interior Minister for Social Security, on 4 September which stated that intelligence notified the ministry’s national security body that elements from the organization in Egypt and Gaza were planning attacks on the two embassies.
Informed security sources said the letter was forwarded to all security sectors across Egypt to undertake the necessary measures. The same sources added that Military Intelligence informed the Interior Ministry one week ago that 22 militants in Sinai, three of whom have been determined, are planning to sabotage and bomb vital facilities and police checkpoints.
Throughout the month of August, the Egyptian Armed Forces launched a military operation that targeted radical elements in Sinai who are believed to have perpetrated the attack on Egyptian security guards.
Israeli media reports had said elements from Global Jihad likely carried out the attack.
Following the incident, President Mohamed Morsy sent then-intelligence head Mourad Mowafy to retirement, after he made a controversial statement that his organization had information about the attack and about the perpetrators involved before the attack
On 12 August, Morsy also decided to force head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and Chief of Staff Sami Anan into retirement in a military reshuffle. The shuffle may have been due to the attack.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
