Egypt's military ruler Field Marshall Mohammed Hussein Tantawi said the security situation in the Sinai Peninsula is 100 percent under control. Tantawi made the comments during a recent visit to Cairo by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta who expressed concern over the situation in the Sinai. In a meeting between the two, Panetta stressed the need to maintain security in the Sinai and prevent attacks against Israel and also prevent the harming of the pipeline which supplies gas to Jordan and Israel. Israel allowed Egypt to deploy over 1,000 troops in the Sinai to combat terror after terrorists infiltrated the Israeli-Egyptian border in August and launched a series of terror attacks killing eight Israelis. Last week, unknown assailants blew up the natural gas pipeline for the sixth time this year.
