INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2015 Top Tunisian jihadist killed in US strike WASHINGTON: A top Tunisian jihadist and associate of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by a US airstrike in Libya last month, The New York Times reported yesterday. Seifallah Ben Hassine, listed as a “global terrorist” by the US, was killed in mid-June in an airstrike that targeted a top Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist, the paper said. Ben Hassine is believed to have coordinated a string of assassinations, including the killing of famed Afghan anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Masood in 2001. Tunisian officials also accused the leader of the banned Ansar Al-Sharia group of directing the killings of two secular Tunisian politicians in 2013, the paper reported. He was fur- ther suspected of leading an attack on the US embassy in Tunis in September 2012, days after an attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the paper said. He had been based in Libya since 2013. Tunisian station Radio Mosaique first reported Ben Hassine’s death, which The New York Times said it had confirmed with an official in Washington. However, the interior ministry in Tunis, contact- ed by AFP, said it had “no information on his death”. The US official said Ben Hassine died in a strike that target- ed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a top Al-Qaeda-linked militant believed to have masterminded a deadly attack on an Algerian gas plant in 2013. Libya’s government reported at the time that Belmokhtar was killed in the attack but Al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch denied it. Hassine, also known as Abu Iyadh, had been on a United Nations blacklist since 2002 over his links to Al-Qaeda. SINAI: Egyptian worshippers pray for the victims of attacks by Islamic State-linked militants in northern Sinai, at He was imprisoned in Tunisia in 2003 but released under an Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque in Cairo yesterday. — AP amnesty after the ouster of secular dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. He allegedly fought alongside Bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001 before travelling to Pakistan and then Turkey where he Two years after Morsi, was arrested and extradited, the newspaper reported. —AFP Egypt stuck in turmoil US seeing rapid expansion of Sunni outreach at Despite crackdown, security and stability still lacking Anbar base CAIRO: Two years after the army deposed Egyptian jihadist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Economic concerns WASHINGTON: The United States is seeing signs that new efforts to president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt is roiled by pledging allegiance to IS last November. The other major challenge Sisi faces is how draw Sunni tribesmen into Iraq’s battle against Islamic State may be brazen Islamic State group attacks in the Sinai “There is a complete political failure at all to revive the economy. His government’s aim taking root at a military base near the fallen capital of Sunni-dominat- Peninsula and brutal government repression levels amid a return of repression, arbitrary is to achieve annual gross domestic product ed Anbar province, US officials say. that has killed hundreds. Militant attacks have arrests and killings,” said activist Mohamed (GDP) growth of seven percent for an econo- A US defense officials told Reuters the first group of 500 Sunni persisted since the then army chief and now Nabil from the April 6 youth movement that my traditionally driven by tourist revenues. recruits would soon complete training at the Taqaddum military base President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ousted Morsi on spearheaded the 2011 uprising against ex- The vital sector has plummeted, however, near the city of Ramadi, making way for a second group of about 500 July 3, 2013, after mass street protests against president Hosni Mubarak. with last year’s 10 million visitors sharply Sunnis who have agreed to participate. the Islamist’s single year of divisive rule. down on 2010 when 15 million tourists The number of confirmed Sunni recruits for Taqaddum is double This week’s assassination of state prosecu- Weary Egyptians back Sisi thronged the country, lured by its archaeolog- the amount first disclosed last month by the US military and follows tor Hisham Barakat in a Cairo car bombing, The crackdown overseen by Sisi initially ical sites and Red Sea resorts. US President Barack Obama’s June 10 order to deploy American followed by spectacular IS attacks that killed targeted Morsi’s supporters-a police assault Signs of a recovery are visible, but econo- troops for the first time to the base. About 400 American troops are dozens in the Sinai, underlined the lack of on two pro-Morsi camps in Cairo weeks after mists said a fundamental change is needed in now working at Taqaddum, some engaging with Sunni tribal leaders security and stability despite a wide-ranging his overthrow killed hundreds. the government’s thinking. Sisi hosted an but not directly training the forces, the officials said, speaking on con- crackdown. Hundreds have been killed, tens The crackdown was rapidly expanded to international conference in March, which dition of anonymity. Iraq’s army has been burdened by a legacy of sec- of thousands detained and hundreds more include the jailing of secular activists who had attracted investment deals worth more than tarianism in Anbar, whose dominant Sunni population resented for- sentenced to death after speedy trials in the not only revolted against Mubarak but backed $36 billion. He is also banking on the new $9 mer Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s Shiite majority government and crackdown targeting Morsi supporters. Sisi in ousting Morsi. Rights groups accuse the billion Suez canal expansion project sched- were incensed when he ordered troops to clear a protest camp in Morsi and several leaders of his Muslim authorities of using the judiciary to suppress uled to be inaugurated on August 6. Ramadi in December 2013. Brotherhood movement are among those to dissent. “The Egyptian authorities have shown The project is part of an ambitious plan to One of the goals of the US deployment to Taqaddum is encourag- have been handed the death penalty. that they will stop at nothing in their attempts develop the zone around the canal into an ing Sunni tribes to join the battle against Islamic State, drawing in Jihadists led by IS have killed scores of to crush all challenges to their authority,” said industrial and commercial hub, with a focus fighters who felt unsafe traveling to the other US outpost in Sunni- troops, mostly in the Sinai, challenging Sisi’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty on shipping. The expansion is expected to dominated Anbar province, at the Ain Al-Asad air base. efforts to restore security and economic stabil- International. Barakat’s murder and more than double annual Suez revenues, to Taqaddum is located only about 15 miles (25 km) from Ramadi, ity in the biggest Sunni Arab country. On Wednesday’s IS attacks infuriated Sisi, who $13.2 billion in 2023. “I am bullish on develop- Anbar’s capital, which fell to Islamic State fighters in May. Iraq is ready- Wednesday, the military deployed F-16 war- called for fast-track executions of those on ments around the new Suez Canal, but I am ing a counteroffensive to retake it. planes to bombard IS jihadists who battled death row. looking forward to seeing a program that The Sunni recruits at Taqaddum would represent a significant troops in a North Sinai town after launching a On Wednesday the cabinet passed an anti- would have a number of other infrastructure chunk of Sunni recruits so far for the still overwhelmingly Shiite popu- surprise dawn attack on army checkpoints. terror law to “achieve swift justice and development projects to help job growth,” lar mobilization forces. The first US official estimated about 6,000 Dozens were killed in what was IS’s bold- revenge for our martyrs”. Analysts said the said Angus Blair, chief executive of the Cairo- Sunni recruits. A second official said Sunnis had so far demonstrated est attack yet in the strife-torn Sinai, with mili- government sees most opponents as sup- based Signet think-tank. commitment to the training - noting that all 500 had returned to the tants taking over rooftops and firing rockets at porters of the now blacklisted Brotherhood. Double-digit inflation and a budget base after a brief break to celebrate the Muslim holy month of troops. The army said in a video depicting the “And because many Egyptians are weary deficit of 12 percent of GDP also remain key Ramadan with their families. Iraq’s government also appeared invest- attack that militants had pinned IS flags on of political tumult and frightened by an concerns. “Current economic growth is ed, quickly providing small arms and ammunition for the Sunnis and some buildings to “show that the terrorists upsurge of terrorist attacks within Egypt’s about five percent per annum. What is need- directing funds to improve base facilities for them. had taken over the town,” but their attempt major cities, they are largely supportive of this ed is seven to eight percent of growth, given “There’s a large (Sunni) population out there that’s ... going to wait was thwarted. Attacks by insurgents multi- crackdown,” said Eric Trager of think-tank The the population growth of 2.6 percent per and see if this takes or not. And these are indications to me that this plied after the overthrow of Morsi, with Washington Institute for Near East Policy. annum,” Blair said. — AFP has taken,” the second official said. — Reuters.