CAIRO: Egypt has arrested a veteran of the Syrian civil war on suspicion of planning terrorist acts inside Egypt, the state news agency reported yesterday.
The Egyptian prosecutor’s office in Suez City ordered the arrest of Wael Ahmed Abdel Fattah for 15 days, Mena reported, adding that he was suspected of working with Islamist militant groups.
Mena said Abdel Fattah, a former oil company employee, battled in Syria alongside the Nusra Front, seen as the most effective rebel group fighting Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
Since the army toppled president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood last July, Islamist militants based in the Sinai Peninsula have stepped up attacks on police and soldiers, killing hundreds. The insurgency has spread to Cairo and other cities, where senior security officials have been targeted.
Militant violence and political turmoil have dealt a heavy blow to tourism, which was a critical source of hard currency during more stable times.
The Egyptian state and militants are old foes. Islamist-leaning soldiers assassinated President Anwar al-Sadat in 1981, mainly because he signed a peace treaty with Israel. It took former president Hosni Mubarak years to put down an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s. Reuters
