CAIRO - Egyptian security forces said Saturday that they arrested a top wanted militant in the Sinai Peninsula suspected of killing 25 off-duty policemen in one of the area’s deadliest attacks.
Meanwhile, authorities arrested another top figure from former President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, whose supporters have held near-daily protests against the Islamist’s ouster in a July 3 coup.
In a sign authorities are responding to an easing of those pro-Morsi rallies, the government again shortened a military-imposed curfew by two hours, making the evening lock-up in nearly a dozen Egyptian provinces only seven hours.
However, the full 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will remain in place for Fridays, when Morsi supporters usually organize large rallies. Hundreds of his supporters, including leading Brotherhood members, have been arrested in a crackdown on the group.
Violence in the Sinai Peninsula, however, has only worsened since Morsi’s overthrow. The militant arrested Saturday is suspected of leading an al-Qaida-linked group in an ambush where 25 off-duty policemen were lined up and shot Aug. 19, security officials said.
The militant, Adel Mohammed, also known as Adel Habara, one official said, has already been sentenced to death in absentia for killing soldiers in the Nile Delta last year. The security official said two other suspects were arrested along with Habara.
Earlier Saturday, security officials said 31 suspected militants have been arrested since Thursday, including thethree suspected of involvement in the Aug. 19 attack and two caught seeking treatment for wounds suffered in clashes with police.
According to one security official, four militants have also been killed since Thursday. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Since the ouster of Morsi, an Islamist, his supporters have been organizing regular protests calling for his return. Several thousand took to the streets Friday. Saturday’s arrest in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria of senior Brotherhood leader Sobhi Saleh was made on charges of inciting violence and disrupting public order, according to security officials.
The son of another Brotherhood figure, Saad Emara, was also detained and ordered held for 15 days, pending investigations for charges of inciting violence.
Also on Saturday, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled el-Khateeb raised the death toll in violence during Friday’s pro-Morsi protests in several cities to eight. El-Khateeb said 221 were injured - most of them in clashes between Morsi supporters and other residents.
Those killed on Friday included one police officer and one civilian shot dead in a drive-by shooting targeting a police station in an upscale neighborhood of Cairo.
On Saturday, a leader of al-Qaida’s Iraqi branch called on Egyptians to fight their army and derided the Muslim Brotherhood as “evil” for seeking power through democracy. The message by Abu Mohammed al-Adnani highlights the militant movement’s attempt to use Morsi’s ouster to encouragearmed struggle over peaceful politics. In the 32-minute message, al-Adnani derided the Brotherhood as “a secular party with an Islamic cloak, worshipping power and parliaments, and their jihad is for democracy and not for God’s sake.” It is “more evil and malevolent than the secularists, and if seizing power necessitates bowing to the Devil, they will bow without hesitation,” he said.
Al-Adnani is off icial spokesman of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is battling Baghdad’s Shiite-led government. The audio could not be independently verified but appeared on a website commonly used by militants.
He said dignity and freedom from oppression “can only be achieved through the rattle of the swords, shedding blood and sacrifice of life.”
Also on Saturday, Egyptian authorities reported a failed attempt to disrupt traffic on the strategic Suez Canal but gave scant detail.
Canal authority Chairman Mohab Mamish said a “terrorist element” had tried to disrupt navigation in the waterway by targeting a Panama-flagged ship. In comments carried by official news agency MENA, he said the attempt was “completely unsuccessful,” and the container carrier was unharmed. He did not say how the ship was targeted.
Authorities have taken extra security measures to safeguard the waterway as lawlessness and violence gripped Sinai, where militants and smugglers rove relatively freely and target security forces and posts.
Information for this article was contributed by Ashraf Sweilam and Maamoun Youssef of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 9 on 09/01/2013