Militant group joins al-Qaida
Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader said in a new videotape aired Saturday that an Egyptian militant group has joined the terror network.
It was the first time that al-Qaida has announced a branch in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation. The Egyptian group, Gamaa Islamiya, is apparently a revived version of a group of the same name that waged a campaign of violence during the 1990s but was crushed in a government crackdown.
Ayman al-Zawahri, who is Egyptian, said the Egyptian group was led by Mohammed al-Islambouli, the younger brother of Khaled al-Islambouli, the militant who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat in 1981 and was later executed.
Mohammed al-Islambouli left Egypt in the mid-1980s and was believed to have been in Afghanistan working with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, said Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on militant groups.
It was not clear how much of a following the new version of Gamaa Islamiya has in Egypt. Its previous incarnation was largely eliminated by the government crackdown, and its leaders later announced a truce from prison.
MOGADISHU, Somalia
Ethiopian minister arrives for talks
Ethiopia’s foreign minister arrived in Somalia on Saturday to mediate disagreements among the leaders of the nation’s U.N.-backed transitional government, which is under pressure from an Islamic militia that the United States accuses of harboring terrorists.
Seyoum Mesfin became the first Ethiopian official to visit Somalia in many years. The neighboring countries fought a war from 1977 to 1978 and view each other as enemies, but Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf is a longtime ally of Ethiopia.
Somalia’s transitional government was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help the country emerge from 16 years of anarchy and violence.
Disagreements inside the transitional government have led 40 Cabinet and junior ministers to resign in the past nine days. The ministers all have cited his lukewarm support for Arab League-sponsored talks with the Islamic militants, which were due to have resumed in Khartoum, Sudan, on Tuesday.
MUTTUR, Sri Lanka
Soldiers retake town from rebels
Sri Lankan soldiers retook control of a key northeastern town Saturday after six days of fighting Tamil rebels there, and the military urged thousands of displaced civilians to return.
“We have the town totally under our control. We tell the people to come back and resume their normal lives,” said Maj. Nalin Jayatillaka, the military’s commanding officer for Muttur.
The pro-rebel TamilNet Web site quoted Tiger spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan as saying the rebels had returned to previous positions with their “objectives accomplished.”