Egypt gas pipeline attacked again (VIDEO)
A pipeline delivering gas from Egypt to Israel burns following an attack which left one person injured, Egyptian security sources said on September 27, 2011, near the town of al-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula. At least three gunmen in a van opened fire on a gas installation before an explosion hit the pipeline, witnesses said.
A section of the Egyptian gas pipeline that supplies both Israel and Jordan exploded after being attacked by gunmen early on Tuesday morning.
It was the sixth such attack on the Sinai Peninsula pipeline since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak on February 11.
Read about the last Sinai attack here.
Agence France-Presse reported that one person was injured in the drive-by shooting attack:
At least three gunmen in a van opened fire on a gas installation before an explosion hit the pipeline near the town of al-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, witnesses said.
Witnesses told Reuters that the explosion shot flames nearly 50 feet into the night sky, eventually burning nearly olive trees and nearby “shacks”.
A witness told investigators he saw three men jump out of a small truck at a pumping station in an area known as al-Maidan, southwest of the city of el-Arish, and open fire on the pipeline, the security sources said.
Israel receives nearly 40 percent of its natural gas from Egypt.
More from Jerusalem: Israel's gas supply under threat
Many Egyptians believe the gas deal between the two nations led to unregulated profits for corrupt politicians in the former regime, including Mubarak.
Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979.
Tensions between the two countries, however, have been at an all-time high following the storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo by a mob of angry Egyptian protesters earlier this month.