Cairo - Egypt has arrested a suspected terrorist cell accused of having online links to al-Qaeda, Egypt's Interior Ministry announced on Thursday. The alleged leader of the group, which consisted of 25 Egyptians and one Palestinian, admitted that they communicated with other terror cells by internet.
The accused - all engineers and technicians - were suspected plotting attacks on oil pipelines and ships crossing the Suez Canal.
They are thought to have developed explosives triggered by on time-delays using cellphones.
One of the guns seized with the accused is the same used in a robbery that took place in May last year in the Zeiton district, northeastern Cairo, when two men fired shots at a jewelry shop killing four Coptic Christians as they drove by on a motorbike, officials said.
