CAIRO, March 28 (UPI) -- A second attempt to blow up a gas pipeline between Egypt and Israel failed, an Egyptian Natural Gas Co. official said.
"There is no interruption to the gas supply, the flow is normal. There is no stoppage," GASCO Chairman Magdy Tawfiq told Ahram Online a few hours after the attack. "The armed forces in that site have been strengthened by new soldiers to secure the pipeline."
At dawn Sunday, six armed men stormed the gas terminal in the northern Sinai and placed an explosive device that failed to detonate, the report said.
The Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman said blamed a faulty timer and Egyptian soldiers defused the device.
It was the second attempt to blow up the pipeline. Last month, attackers detonated a bomb cutting off gas supplies to Jordan and Israel for more than a month.
Gas supplies to Israel resumed this month, six weeks after the first attack, Israeli media reports said.
Egypt's deal with Israel has drawn widespread criticism, particularly following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, Ahram Online said. Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said the Egyptian Cabinet would review the deal to determine if Israel purchases the gas below the market price.
