Category: Egypt

Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the defense minister and military officer  who led last summer’s takeover  of the elected government in Egypt, formally announced on Wednesday that he was resigning from the army and running for president as he moved to consolidate his power. “It is true this is my last day in uniform but I will fight every day for Egypt free of fear and terror,” Mr. Sisi said, alluding to the military-led government’s continuing battles against the Islamist militants and street protesters. “I repeat what I have said before: ‘We’d rather die before Egyptians are terrorized.’” Mr. Sisi, who held the rank of field marshal, is almost universally expected to win the election and thus formalize  the de facto power he currently holds. He has been the government’s pre-eminent decision maker  since he led the ouster of Egypt’s first freely elected leader, President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim […]

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; A crowd gathered outside a courthouse in the town of Matay erupted in wailing and rage on Monday when a judge sentenced 529 defendants to death in just the second session of their trial, convicting them of murdering a police officer in anger at the ouster of the Islamist president. Here in the provincial capital just a few miles away, schools shut down early, and many stayed indoors fearing a riot, residents said. But the crowds went home, and soon the streets were quiet. After nine months of escalating repression that culminated in the extraordinary verdict, the military-led government that removed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood appears to have finally cowed his supporters into near-silence here in […]

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An Egyptian court sentenced 529 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death on Monday on charges including murder, a defense lawyer said, in a sharp escalation of a crackdown on the movement. Most were arrested during clashes which erupted in the southern province of Minya after the forced dispersal of two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo on August 14. Political turmoil has deepened in Egypt since the army overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood last July. Security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood members in the street, and arrested thousands of others. "The court has decided to sentence to death 529 defendants, and 16 were acquitted," lawyer Ahmed al-Sharif told Reuters. The ruling can be appealed. The charges against the group, on trial in Minya since Saturday, include violence, inciting murder, storming a police station, attacking persons and damaging public and private […]

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Islamist militants killed an Egyptian brigadier general and a colonel in an early-morning gun battle in the Nile Delta province of Qalyubeya, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. The killings followed the shooting deaths of six military conscripts over the weekend on the streets of Cairo, in an escalation of attacks on security forces after a lull in the violence over the past month. Islamist extremists have killed hundreds of military service members and police officers in retaliation for the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood last summer. Militants stunned Egypt in late January with a succession of high-profile attacks: a deadly car bombing at the gates of the Egyptian security headquarters in Cairo, the assassination of a senior Interior Ministry official on the streets of the capital, and the shooting down of a military helicopter in northern Sinai. In February, terrorists blew up a […]

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CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s state news agency says gunmen have attacked a checkpoint manned by the military police in a suburb north of Cairo, killing five soldiers. Major General Mahmoud Yousri, chief of security of Qalubiya province, told MENA that the attackers stormed the checkpoint early Saturday in Shubra al-Kheima. Yousri said explosive disposal experts managed to defuse two bombs left behind by the attackers. Egypt has seen a spike in attacks on police and the military since the toppling of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year. Many of the deadliest attacks have been claimed by Sinai-based militants.

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Egyptian security officials say gunmen have opened fire on an army bus in Cairo, killing one officer and wounding three soldiers. The officials say the bus, which belongs to the army’s Military Police, was driving through the capital’s Amiriyah district when it was targeted on Thursday morning. The officials did not say who was responsible for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Islamic militants. In the eight months since the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, militants have targeted the military and police forces in Cairo and elsewhere in the country, often using motorbikes. Militants also are waging a full-fledged insurgency in the strategic Sinai Peninsula. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

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Irving, Tex., independent IPR Inc. has made a discovery in its first drilled well, SWGEZ-5, in its Southwest Gebel El-Zeit concession in the Gulf of Suez offshore Egypt. IPR operates the block, which was acquired from Devon Energy International in 2007. IPR constructed a modern 3-slot platform, 9.5-km, 8.5-in. pipeline from platform to shore, and state-of-the art surface facilities to receive future deliveries. SWGEZ-5 was drilled using Advanced Energy Systems’ ADM-IV jack up rig under the supervision of IPR’s operational teams and its joint venture operating company, PetroHurghada. The well took 43 days to drill, test, and complete to a total depth of 8,020 ft in the basement of the Precambrian age. The well encountered a total of 107 ft of net hydrocarbon pay in Late Cretaceous age Nubia and Matulla formations, as targeted prolific producers in the Gulf of Suez. SWGEZ-5 tested naturally flowing oil and gas at […]

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Egypt is enhancing exploration terms and striving to repay nearly $5 billion it owes to foreign oil and gas producers as it struggles to prevent them fleeing to more promising prospects elsewhere in Africa. Cairo needs them to expand exploration and bring new finds to production if it is to keep the lights on and avoid more civil unrest. But investors are hesitant – Egypt pays them barely enough to cover investment costs. The costing issue has been compounded since the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak by Egypt’s inability to pay foreign firms for existing output and its decision to divert for domestic use the share of gas they normally get to export. The crisis has left BG Group, a major investor which relies on Egypt for almost a fifth of its output, unable to meet export commitments. The British firm has said it […]

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Emirati energy company Dana Gas said it was overhauling its el-Wastani natural gas plant in Egypt to increase its production by 25 percent. The company said it was shutting down the facility for two weeks to upgrade capacity by 40 million cubic feet per day to 200 million cubic feet. Mark Fenton, general manager for Dana’s subsidiary in Egypt, said the maintenance was planned as soon as his company received permission to bring new fields in the country into commercial production. "It is a necessary work and the tie-in of the new wells along with the maintenance program ensures that the plant is also fully upgraded prior to new wells coming on stream during the year," he said in a statement published Sunday. Dana announced last week it signed agreements with the Egyptian government to explore for natural resources in eastern […]

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