Unknown saboteurs bombed on Tuesday the main gas pipeline south of al-Arish in Sinai, repeating what has become a common occurrence since the January 25 uprising which toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011.Security sources said the targeted pipeline provided gas to central Sinai’s industrial area. It was also used for exporting gas to Jordan.
Eye witnesses told Aswat Masriya that the gas company which owns the pipeline cut off the gas supply to the pipeline to control the fire after the blast.
Security forces closed the roads, entrances and exits to the city in search of the assailants, security sources told state-run news agency MENA.
South Arish’s main pipeline has thus far been bombed 26 times since the 2011 uprising, making Tuesday's attack the 27th time.
Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, which followed mass protests against his rule.
At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on October 24, in the worst militant attack since Mursi's ouster.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in parts of the Sinai Peninsula in response to the attack.
