Syria extradites senior Islamic militant to Egypt
By Daniel Sobelman, Ha'aretz Correspondent
haaretzdaily.com
Syria recently extradited to Egypt a senior Islamic militant who topped Cairo's most wanted list. The decision to extradite Rifi Ahmad Taha, a senior leader in the subversive Egyptian organization Al Jama's al Islamia, may be meant to show that Damascus is joining the international war on terror.
The London-based Islamic Observation Center said Sunday that Taha had been arrested in Damascus several months ago after entering Syria from Sudan. "The Syrian regime has committed a crime in violation of basic human rights," the organization said in a statement.
Taha, 47, had been sentenced in abstentia to death in Egypt. He headed the Al Jama'a al Islamia when it carried out a mass terror attack in the tourist site of Luxor in 1997. In the attack, Islamic militants dressed up as policemen and killed 58 tourists.
Taha was considered to be an especially difficult personality as compared to other Al Jama'a al Islamia leaders. In July 1997, he objected to a cease-fire the organization declared after a five-year struggle against President Hosni Mubarak's administration, and left al Islamia.
In recent years, Taha had been living in Afghanistan, from where he released statements against Israel and the United States in which he called upon supporters to kill Jews and Americans. Taha's name has also been mentioned alongside Osama bin Laden's. In June 1998, it was reported that bin Laden was behind the reconciliation between al Islamia and the Egyptian Jihad led by Iman al Zowaheri, who is considered to be bin Laden's deputy in the al Qaida organization.
In October last year, Taha called upon Egyptian soldiers to assassinate former prime minister Ehud Barak and former U.S. president Bill Clinton. Recalling the fact that the United States is using the Suez Canal, Taha urged Egyptian soldiers to carry out a suicide attack similar to the attack on the U.S.S. Cole aircraft carrier in Yemen. |
