Sinai jihadists releases video of assassination attempt on interior minister

VIDEO

A Sinai-based jihadist-Salafi group has released a 30-minute video which it claims is the attempted assassination of Egypt’s interim interior minister. Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem) said that the attack on General Mohamed Ibrahim was carried out by a former army officer named as Walid Badir on September 5.

According to the group, Badir graduated from the Military Academy in 1991 to join the Administrative Corps before the army sacked him. He then travelled to Afghanistan and Iraq and was arrested in Iran. He spent time in Syria before returning to Egypt “to carry on the battle of revenge on behalf of Egypt’s Muslims against the ‘serial killer’ in the interior ministry”.

The film shows Badir in a car wearing military uniform. Addressing Islamist parties who participated in the democratic process, he said, “This is not the Islam which the Prophet has called us to follow. It is a deformed shape of Islam. We have advised and continue to advise the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists to follow the path of the Prophet and his companions. I call on you to stand against the army and the police with explosive belts and bombs.” Images of the actual attack on the minister’s convoy are then shown.

Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis claimed that it carried out the assassination attempt in response to the massacres of pro-legitimacy demonstrators by the coup government. It is believed that the group is also responsible for a number of attacks on Egypt’s natural gas pipelines which supply Jordan.

An Islamist intellectual and political analyst, Dr Najeh Ibrahim, pointed out that recording such terrorist operations and releasing the film hasn’t been done in Egypt before. He claimed that the group has been “inspired by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza”.