Egyptian Pipeline Supplying Israel Is Attacked
Saboteurs on Sunday blew up a pipeline in Egypt that supplied gas to Israel, the 12th such attack in a year, security officials said.
Masked gunmen planted explosives under the pipeline near the town of El Arish in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, they said.
Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion before a large fire broke out.
Sources said that the attack on the pipeline occurred the day after an Islamist leader from the area died in his prison cell in Cairo. Interior Ministry officials said he died from natural causes.
Emergency services rushed to the scene to try to control the blaze; there were no immediate reports of casualties, the official said.
The pipeline, which carries gas through the Sinai and on to Jordan and Israel, has been attacked 11 other times over the past year. The first attack occurred during the mass uprisings that drove President Hosni Mubarak from power.