Egyptian police seize large arms shipment for Gaza

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Oct 20 (Reuters) Egyptian police seized 195 crates of automatic weapons and ammunition today and arrested four men suspected of planning to smuggle the consignment across the border into Gaza, police sources said.

A police checkpoint at the Sinai village of Ballouza, 160 km short of the border, found the weapons in a truck heading towards the border town of Rafah, the sources said.

Under questioning, the men said they were planning to smuggle the weapons across the border, they added.

Arms smugglers maintain a complex system of tunnels along the Egypt-Gaza border to supply weapons to Palestinian militant groups, despite Egyptian and Israeli attempts to stop them.

Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer brought up Israel's complaints about smuggling when he saw Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo yesterday.

REUTERS BDP BST1928