Israel Matzav

Ayman Nour claims to have escaped assassination attempt

Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour, a candidate to replace Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, claims to have escaped an assassination attempt in Luxor on Monday (Hat Tip: SultanAlQassemi via Twitter).

‘‘It happened in Luxor. We were heading by car to the main police headquarters in the city. Suddenly, three security service personnel came out, one of them came towards me very quickly with a knife and tried to stab me with it. The people who were in the street stopped them and a minute later a military car arrived to break up the scuffle between those who were protecting me from the attackers. I think they were members of what we call the fifth column, pro-Mubarak supporters, who were active from the 28th January. The ones who were responsible for attacking protesters, looting, and theft, etc. This is not just me who thinks this. This attack is strange. What happened is strange, significant, unjustified and cannot be understood.’‘

Al-Qassemi is a 'commentator on Arab affairs' and is apparently quite popular in the Arab world (anyone who follows 179 people on Twitter and is followed by over 33,000 must be pretty popular). He's been a great source of information since the Egyptian uprising started. His tweet implied that Nour's claim is an 'attention seeker.'

In response to his tweet, Habiba Hamid, a Saudi national who is a correspondent for the UAE's the National, implied that there was a connection between the 'attempt' on Nour's life and his call on Monday to 'rethink' the Camp David treaty. I asked if she meant to imply that connection but so far no response.

Hmmm.

Labels: Ayman Nour, Luxor

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:55 PM