Terrorists targeting Suez Canal escape

Hezbollah rally

JERUSALEM – Members of a vast Hezbollah terrorist cell suspected of planning attacks against tourist sites and economic targets in the Suez Canal have escaped from Egyptian prison, according to informed Egyptian security sources speaking to WND.

The event raises the prospect of further instability in the Suez region, which carries about 8 percent of global seaborne trade.

The cell was arrested in June 2009. At the time, Egypt's public prosecutor, Abdel-Magid Mohammed, announced the country had arrested 13 alleged Hezbollah agents on suspicion of planning attacks inside Egypt.

The agents are suspected of establishing a vast terrorist network in Egypt focusing on targets inside the country as well as aiding Hamas in the neighboring Gaza Strip.

According to Egyptian security sources speaking to WND yesterday, 10 members of the cell, which the sources said included Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, escaped from Egyptian prison in recent days amid chaos that has engulfed the nation and has distracted Egyptian forces.

In 2009, WND first reported Iranian soldiers aiding the Hezbollah members were nabbed in Egypt.

A senior Egyptian security official, speaking from Cairo, told WND in 2009 his country had information Hezbollah cells – working with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – had been coordinating terrorist activities inside Egypt with al-Qaida elements known to be present in the Sinai.

The accusation that Iranian-backed agents were working with al-Qaida could not be verified by Israeli security officials. If accurate, it would mark a major turning point for Hezbollah, which has openly clashed with al-Qaida over ideology. Hezbollah espouses a strict Shiite Islamic belief system, while al-Qaida adheres to fundamentalist Sunni Muslim beliefs.

Al-Qaida has been fingered in a string of major, deadly suicide bombings inside Egypt the past few years mostly targeting hotels and other tourist sites. The Egyptian government previously has admitted it was likely al-Qaida was still operating in the Sinai.

The Egyptian security official speaking to WND said the Hezbollah-Iranian agents in Egypt were working with al-Qaida to plot attacks against tourist sites, particularly those known to be popular with Israelis.

According to separate informed security officials with direct knowledge of the situation, Hezbollah, working directly with Iran, began setting up cells inside Egypt at least two years ago. The cells consisted of well over 80 agents, said the sources.

The goals of the cells operating inside the country include plotting to destabilize the Egyptian regime to advance Iranian interests, planning attacks against tourist sites with Israeli casualties in mind, aiding Hamas in Gaza and establishing a base of Iranian operations along the strategic Suez Canal.

The pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Egypt arrested the chief of the Hezbollah cell, identified as Sami Shehab. The newspaper claimed Shehab confessed his cell monitored tourist sites in the Egyptian resort cities of Taba, Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh, and tracked Israeli ships passing through the Suez Canal.

Just yesterday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah expressed vocal support for the protests targeting Mubarak's regime.

"The United States is trying to contain the revolution and improve its own ugly image in the Middle East and Islamic world ... after years of backing the worst dictatorships our region has ever seen," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

"But be sure that regimes allied with the United States and Israel cannot stand long against the will of the people," he added.

"As God is my witness, I yearn to be among you, to give my blood and soul, as any Egyptian youth would, to this noble cause," Nasrallah said in remarks directed at the protesters.