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Suspected militants blew up a pipeline in Egypt's Sinai that transports gas to Jordan late Monday in the third such attack in less than a month, security officials said.As far as I can tell, this is the first attack in years that was purely against the Jordan pipeline.
The officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries, but witnesses said thick flames rose into the sky from the spot where the pipeline was struck. Witnesses also said that ambulances had rushed to the scene.
Egyptian security officials said the pipeline was blown up in an area called Muqtadiba, south of Al-Arish.
On 17 January and 31 December, militants had blown up a section of a pipeline supplying an industrial area in the restive Sinai peninsula.
In the past, it was assumed that the attacks on the pipeline to Israel and Jordan were meant purely for Israel and hurting the Arabs in Jordan was a necessary byproduct of their hate for the Jewish state. Now that the target is Jordan itself, it could mean a few things.
Maybe the jihadists hate Jordan for its anti-Islamist policies.
Maybe the jihadists were targeting an internal pipeline to hurt the Egyptian government and made a mistake.
Or maybe, just maybe, these jihadists are addicted to violence itself. When they can direct their anger at Jews they are happy to claim that they are doing it for righteous reasons, but when they can't target Israel they have to attack anything that does not meet their standards of Islam.
Maybe their anger and desire to destroy things has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the type of Islam that they have been taught all their lives.
Which means that nothing can ever make the Islamists happy.
Which is something that Westerners simply cannot wrap their heads around.