Thursday, May 23, 2013
Egypt catches arms smugglers near Libyan border
POSTED: 02:45 a.m. HST, Oct 24, 2012
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Interior Minister says security forces have intercepted a group of smugglers bringing in weapons from Libya.
Gen. Ahmed Gamal Eddin told reporters Wednesday that two trucks carrying 25 rockets, 102 rocket-propelled grenades and 102 mortar rounds were seized on the highway near Marsa Matrouh, 430 kilometers (270 miles) northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast.
Gamal Eddin says authorities arrested the smugglers Tuesday. He did not state the number arrested nor their nationalities.
A flood of weapons from Libya has added to security concerns in Egypt, where police have yet to fully return to the nation’s streets since withdrawing during last year’s uprising. Smuggled weapons often fall into the hands of Islamist militants in Sinai who moved swiftly to exploit the security void in the desert peninsula.
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