BICOM

For the second time in two months gunmen targeted a pipeline in Egypt carrying natural gas to Israel and Jordan. Six gunmen overpowered a security guard at a gas terminal in El-Sabil, near the northern Sinai city of El-Arish and planted an explosive device in the terminal. However, the device failed to explode and sappers were able to defuse the bomb later on.

On 5 February a bomb exploded on the pipeline causing a halt in gas exports for over a month to Israel and Jordan. The flow of natural gas resumed on March 16. Last month, Egypt deployed hundreds of additional soldiers in northern Sinai to guard the pipeline, which is becoming more of a target to terrorist cells operating in the Sinai Peninsula.