- CAIRO: Two explosions on Thursday hit an Egyptian pipeline, halting supplies to Israel and Jordan, officials and Egypt’s security services and state media said.
- It was the seventh time it has been attacked by militants this year.
The first blast on Thursday occurred around 1 a.m. 40 km west of the town of El-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, a security source said.
A second unexplained explosion took place near a pumping station in the same sector, the official news agency MENA said, adding that the army was deploying in the region.
It was the seventh attack on the pipeline since the popular uprising ousted longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak in February.
The report on MENA said unidentified assailants placed explosive charges in two separate places on the line that transports natural gas near the north Sinai town of el-Arish, causing blasts and huge fires. The explosions forced a shutdown and halted exports to Jordan and Israel.
But later, a Sinai security official said there was only one explosion Thursday on the pipeline. He said the attackers blew a hole in an underground part of the pipeline, causing less damage than in past attacks, which mostly targeted pumping stations.
The official said no one saw the attackers, though police were searching the site for clues. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Previous bombings have been blamed on Al-Qaida-inspired militants who have stepped up activity in the Sinai, taking advantage of a security vacuum caused by scant police forces in the post-Mubarak era.