Group hiring fighters for Iraq busted in Suez

Egyptian police detained a group recruiting locals in the coastal city of Suez, some 100km north of Cairo, to fight in Iraq, according to security sources.

"The group is called Da'wa and Jihad [Call and Holy War] and is promoting its agenda amidst young people," the sources told Gulf News.

Police arrested seven leaders of the group, including Alaa Shawqi, a local Muslim preacher, added the sources. Police believe that Shawqi is the group's mufti.

No evidence

The sources, who asked not to be named, said the arrests included another member suspected of bankrolling the group and paying for youngsters volunteering to fight in Iraq.

The sources said there was no evidence that the Egyptian group was linked to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi or Al Qaida sympathisers. No formal charges have been levelled yet against the group.

A lawyer for the group, however, accused the Egyptian security agencies of "fabricating" the charges against the suspects. "This is just an attempt to arrest more Islamists," said Mamdouh Esmail, the lead defence lawyer for the group.

"Shaikh Alaa Shawqi is a well-known preacher, whose taped sermons are approved by Al Azhar," he said. The lawyer said Shawqi's sermons tackled aspects of jihad. But he denied they referred to fighting against the Americans. "Even the person accused of financing the group is himself in financial trouble and is indebted to local banks. This is a pretext to arrest more Islamists."

Over the past two months, hundreds of members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood have been rounded up in the toughest crackdown mounted by Egyptian authorities in years. Many were released later, but the Brotherhood, which is Egypt's biggest opposition force, says over 700, including some leaders, are still in police custody.

The writer is a journalist based in Cairo.