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Islamic State claims attack on Sinai natural-gas pipeline

Terrorist group says its fighters were responsible for the attack on “the natural gas line linking the Jews and the apostate Egyptian government.”

Egyptian armored vehicles patrol on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border, seen from the south of the Gaza Strip, on July 2, 2015. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.
Egyptian armored vehicles patrol on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border, seen from the south of the Gaza Strip, on July 2, 2015. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on a pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday. The group did not provide any evidence for its claims, according to Reuters.

ISIS posted on its Telegram account that “caliphate soldiers targeted ... the natural gas line linking the Jews and the apostate Egyptian government,” the AFP reported.

Gunmen attacked a gas pipeline in the northern Sinai late on Sunday, according to Egyptian security sources. The attackers, suspected Islamist terrorists, blew up the pipeline west of el-Arish, causing a fire but no casualties, according to Reuters.

Egypt began importing gas from Israel’s Leviathan field in January through a pipeline that includes a sub-sea section that connects el-Arish to the coastal city of Ashkelon, Israel.

Following the initial report of the pipeline attack, the companies developing the Leviathan field denied that the gas flow from Israel to Egypt had been disrupted.

“The flow of gas from Leviathan to Egypt is continuing as normal,” they said in a statement, according to the report.

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