Hizbullah Cell Planned to Monitor Suez Canal, and 3 Major Bomb Attacks in Egypt
Interrogation of the so-called Hizbullah cell has uncovered that the group was tasked with monitoring the Suez Canal.
Press reports from Egypt said Hizbullah detainees belonging to a six-member "Port Said cell" have confessed that prime suspect Sami Shehab has assigned them to buy a boat to monitor Suez Canal.
Egypt”s Al Akhbar newspaper identified them as Ayman Mustafa, Ihab Ahmed, Ihab Assayed, Ibrahim Issam, Mohammed Abdelfattah and Hasan al-Manakhli.
It said the detainees also confessed that Shehab, whose real name is Mohammed Youssef Mansour, had asked them to rent a fish shop in Port Said for use as cover-up to monitor the Suez Canal and ship activity.
Meanwhile, pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat said well-informed sources as saying that interrogation has uncovered that the Hizbullah cell, which includes 49 suspects – including Egyptian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Sudandes – had planned three major car bombing attacks in tourist cities on the Red Sea and the Sinai area.
The sources said the suspects admitted that they know key Hizbullah suspect Mohammed Qabalan and that they have confessed to meeting him several times.
Interrogation has also revealed that Qabalan was planning, with the help of other Hizbullah intelligence men who accompanied him to Egypt, to carry out three major attacks using explosive belts and booby-trapped cars in Taba.