CAIRO (AP) --
Egyptian security forces said they arrested Saturday a top wanted
militant in the Sinai Peninsula, while authorities reported a failed
attempt to disrupt traffic on the strategic Suez Canal but gave scant
detail.
Canal authority chairman Mohab Mamish
said a "terrorist element" had tried to disrupt navigation in the
waterway by targeting a Panama-flagged ship. In comments carried by
official news agency MENA, he said the attempt was "completely
unsuccessful" and the container carrier unharmed. He did not say how the
ship was targeted.
Authorities have taken
extra security measures to safeguard the waterway as lawlessness and
violence gripped Sinai, where militants and smugglers rove relatively
freely and target security forces and posts.
Mamish
said military troops dealt "firmly" with the situation, and that
navigation was largely uninterrupted. Earlier Saturday, residents of
Port Said, a city that lies along the waterway, said they heard a loud
bang. It was not immediately possible to reach witnesses later
Saturday.
Egyptian authorities have heightened
their security arrangements in recent weeks, following the military
coup that ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3.
They
accuse opponents of the coup of trying to destabilize the country, and
have waged a security crackdown against members of the Muslim
Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, and other allies, arresting
hundreds.
Pro-military media and state TV have frequently described the crackdown on Morsi supporters as a "fight against terrorism."
Morsi
supporters have held near-daily protests since the coup but deny they
are violent. After a bloody dispersal of their major sit-ins earlier
this month, however, some retaliated by attacking police stations,
government buildings and churches.
In Sinai, violence has only worsened since Morsi's overthrow.
The
militant arrested there Saturday is suspected of leading an
al-Qaida-linked group in an ambush where 25 off-duty policemen were
lined up and shot last week, security officials said. The attack was one
of the area's worst militant strikes on security forces.
The
man, Adel Mohammed, also known as Adel Habara according to one
official, has already been sentenced to death in absentia for killing
soldiers in the Nile Delta last year.
Habara's
arrest could potentially undermine militant activities in the area,
where over two dozen security men have been killed alone since July. The
security official said two other suspects were arrested along with
Habara.
Authorities have been engaged in a
long-running battle against militants in the northern half of the
strategic region, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Earlier
Saturday, security officials said 31 suspected militants have been
arrested since Thursday, including two caught seeking treatment for
wounds sustained in clashes with police.
In
other violence nearby, a riot police officer was shot in the chest
Friday while on patrol in the city of El-Arish, the capital of North
Sinai governorate, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.
According
to one security official, four militants have also been killed since
Thursday. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to speak to the media.
Since
the ouster of Morsi, his supporters have been organizing regular
protests calling for his return. Several thousand took to the streets on
Friday in scattered protests in different parts of Egypt, though
demonstrations have largely waned in recent days.
In
a sign authorities are responding to the easing of the pro-Morsi
rallies, the government once again shortened a military-imposed curfew
by two hours, making the evening lock-up in nearly a dozen Egyptian
provinces only seven hours.
However, the full 7
p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will remain in place for Fridays, when supporters
of Morsi usually organize large rallies. Hundreds of his supporters,
including leading Brotherhood members, have been arrested in a crackdown
on the group.
On Saturday, authorities
arrested another top figure from the Brotherhood in the Mediterranean
city of Alexandria. Former lawmaker Sobhi Saleh was taken into custody
on charges of inciting violence and disrupting public order, according
to security officials.
The son of another
Brotherhood figure, Saad Emara, was also detained and ordered held for
15 days, pending investigations for charges of inciting violence.
Also
on Saturday, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled el-Khateeb raised the
death toll in violence during Friday's pro-Morsi protests in several
cities to eight. El-Khateeb said 221 were also injured - most of them in
clashes between Morsi supporters and local residents.
Those
killed on Friday included one police officer and one civilian shot dead
in a drive-by shooting targeting a police station in an upscale
neighborhood of Cairo.
------
Associated Press Writer Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish, Egypt contributed to this report
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