(Daily Beast) Jamie Dettmer - A growing jihadist insurgency is spreading from the Sinai Peninsula. It includes al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups such as al-Furqan Brigades, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis and the Jamal Network. Several hundred fighters from Yemen, Somalia, Algeria and Libya are estimated by U.S. intelligence sources to have joined jihadi groups in the Sinai. Of all the groups active in Egypt, the network set up by Mohamed Jamal al-Kashef, who was captured by Egyptian security forces a year ago, is of the greatest interest to America. Members of the network have been linked to the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi a year ago that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead. Al-Khasef told his Egyptian interrogators: "We consider Sinai the next frontier of conflict with the Zionists and the Americans." In October, the U.S. State Department said Jamal had set up terrorist training camps in both Egypt and Libya and received funding from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
2013-11-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive