ISIS-affiliated militant group claims bombing of Sinai pipeline to Jordan

Egypt’s most active militant group, the ISIS-affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for the bombing of a pipeline that carries gas to Jordan and Egypt’s North Sinai region.

Security sources said unknown assailants on Thursday detonated explosive devices under the pipeline near the El-Midan village in North Sinai – a stronghold of the group’s militants, who swore allegiance to the ISIS group in 2014.

The group said it bombed the pipeline in a statement posted on Twitter Thursday and signed by ‘Sinai Province’, the name by which group refers to itself.

“God willing, not a drop of gas will reach Jordan until the caliphate permits,” the statement said.

The blast left no casualties.

Jordan is one of the members of a US-led campaign that has been pounding ISIS targets, as the group has seized swathes of territories in Syria and Iraq.

Militants have targeted the pipeline dozens of times since an insurgency spiked in North Sinai following Egypt’s 2011 revolt, often forcing a halt of gas supplies to Jordan and earlier to Israel.

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has claimed responsibility for the deadliest attacks since, saying it planted a bomb on a Russian passenger jet that crashed in Sinai in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board.

Source :Ahram online