A group of jihadists from the Sinai say that the jailing of women by the current Egyptian government is what prompted the assassination of a National Security official this week. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis is taking responsibility for the assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Mabrouk. This would mean that terrorists who have no respect for women are claiming to have assassinated an Egyptian official for waging a war on women.
Did Sinai Jihadists assassinate to defend honor of women?
Via AFP:
An Al-Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the assassination of an Egyptian officer involved in a crackdown on Islamists following the military’s overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said its militants gunned down Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Mabruk on Sunday, vowing to carry out more assassinations of officers it accused of imprisoning female protesters.
Mabruk was “one of the major tyrants of the state security apparatus, and the (attack) was a response to this malicious apparatus’s arrest of free women,” said a statement, posted on a militant Islamist Internet forum. {emphasis ours}
The real reason for Mabrouk’s assassination likely has far more to do with reports that he was in charge of a highly damaging file on the Muslim Brotherhood and was scheduled to testify this week.
Mabrouk: Did his assassins come from the Sinai?
Deputy interior minister Abdel Fattah Osman said police believed he was assassinated because of his work.
“The link is a certainty, it is the basis for this criminal act,” he said in an interview with the private ONTV broadcaster.
One security official said Mabruk had been involved in drafting the charges against Morsi and Brotherhood chief Mohammed Badie that led to trials for both Islamists.
Mabruk had been due to testify this week against Morsi who is accused of working with groups such as Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah to escape from prison during the popular 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. {emphasis ours}
The Sinai has become a real hotbed for Muslim Brotherhood / al-Qaeda / Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis / Ansar Al-Sharia / etc. / etc. / terrorists since the ‘Arab Spring’. Some might remember that last month, Al-Bawabh News reported that recordings of conversations between Mursi and Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri exist and that terrorist camps in the Sinai were established to protect the Mursi regime from a coup by the Egyptian military.
It has also been reported that Mursi’s former Chief of Staff and al-Zawahiri are first cousins (See Addendums M and N in our “Ironclad” Report).
As for the name of the group claiming responsibility for Mabrouk’s murder, it’s critically important to remember that acknowledging the name without putting it into context only serves the interests of the enemy that uses said names. The name Ansar Bayt al Maqdis is intended to serve as a distraction in many ways. Identifying it as an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood would be far more useful.
As we reported in August, Osama bin Laden himself ordered the name change of Al-Qaeda to Ansar Al-Sharia. The reason had to do with recruiting. He thought it would be easier to get more jihadists in his ranks by causing the U.S. to fight a war on Sharia law itself.
Bin Laden: Al-Qaeda must change its name to Ansar Al-Sharia