Egyptian gas pipeline attacked again

Cairo: An Egyptian gas pipeline transporting gas to Israel and Jordan was attacked early Tuesday for the sixth time since former president Hosni Mubarak was unseated in February this year, state television reported.

Unknown men blew up a gas export station west of the Mediterranean Sea town of Al Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, security sources said.

There were no casualties, they said, adding that nearby houses were damaged as flames rose from the site.

The last time the pipeline was attacked was in July.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. But the gas supplies, exported to Israel under preferrential terms, were unpopular in Egypt even before Mubarak's toppling.

In April, former Egyptian oil minister Sameh Fahmi was charged over exporting the gas to Israel at prices lower than those of the market.