Jerusalem-----January 6........A man claiming to represent an Islamist terror group in Yemen said on Monday the Egyptian charter plane that crashed at the weekend was brought down in an "attack" by his group, in an anonymous telephone call to AFP.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the claim by the caller who spoke Arabic with an Egyptian accent.

The man, who said he was an Egyptian calling from Cairo, said he represented a group called Ansar el-Haq, the Apostles of Truth, which he said carried out the terror attack that brought down the plane.

Ansar el-Haq is based in Yemen, he said, although nothing is known of the group.

A Boeing 737 operated by a Cairo-based charter firm, Flash Airways, plunged into the Red Sea on Saturday shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 people aboard, mainly French holidaymakers.

Egypt has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash and pointed to an unspecified technical fault. While French officials declined to rule out any cause, they said it appeared to have been a classic accident on take-off.

There have been several airline incidents originally declared mechanical failures, but later discovered to be acts of terrorism. In 1999, an EgyptAir flight crashed near the coast of Massachusetts shortly after takeoff, killing all 217 aboard. At the time, the crash was attributed to "unusual atmospheric conditions," but in a subsequent federal probe, U.S. aviation authorities established that the copilot, Gameel El-Batouty, who was not supposed to be on duty at the time, took over the controls and put the plane into a sharp nosedive, calmly repeating "tawkalt" - meaning "I rely on Allah" in Arabic.

The caller also warned that his group would stage an attack "soon" against Air France "if France does not go back on its decision to ban the Islamic headscarf" in state schools.

Yemen is a stronghold of the Islamic terror group Al-Qaeda, headed by fugitive Osama bin Laden.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was vacationing at the Sharm el-Sheikh resort at the time that the plane went down, and the day of the crash was supposed to be the last day of his New Year's holiday. Investigators are looking into if there was any connection between Blair's visit and the fatal Egyptian air disaster.

Egypt suffers from a long history of Islamic terror attacks against tourists.

In 1992, on September 30 a spokesman for the main terrorist movement, the Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group), warned tourists not to enter the province of Qena, which includes some of Egypt's most famous Pharaonic temples and tombs.
On October 1 Gama'a gunmen fired at a Nile cruiser carrying 140 Germans near Assiut, injuring three Egyptian crew. Two weeks later on October 21, terrorists ambushed a tourist bus, killing a British woman and injuring two British men. The woman was the first foreigner to die in militant-related violence in Egypt.

In November of 1992, five German tourists and two Egyptians were wounded when gunmen ambushed a bus in the town of Qena.

In 1993 on January 7, a man threw a bomb near a tourist bus in Cairo, the first attack ever in the nation's capital. No injuries were reported.
In February a bomb was detonated in a crowded coffee shop in central Cairo, killing a Turk, a Swede, an Egyptian and injuring 20 people of various nationalities.
In March, a bomb damaged five tourist buses outside the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo.
On June 8 a bomb exploded near a tour bus on Pyramids Road in Cairo, killing two Egyptians and injuring 22 people including five British tourists.
In August, a lone gunman fired shots at tourist boat in southern Egypt, but nobody is hurt in the brief random attack.

In September of 1993, Islamic terrorists fired at two Nile cruise boats, the first near the village of al-Qusiya, the second on a boat carrying 22 French tourists near Abu Tig, in Upper Egypt. Both attacks missed & nobody was hurt at all. No word on whether the attackers were nabbed by police.

On October 27, a man described as a mentally disturbed musician shot dead two American businessmen and an eminent French jurist as they ate dinner at a luxury Cairo hotel. An Italian injured in the terror attack later died, three other people were wounded. The government said the attacker was mentally retarded and was not a Gama'a member, but some sources described him as a militant sympathiser.

On December 27, a gun and bomb attack on a tourist bus in old Cairo left eight Austrians and eight Egyptians seriously wounded. Next day newspapers said Gama'a claimed responsibility, explaining that it launched the attack to avenge executions of its members.

In 1994 on February 14, terrorists in Egypt ambushed a bus carrying Romanians in the southern province of Assiut. No one was hurt. The Gama'a terror organization claimed responsibility for the attack.
Feb. 17 - Gunmen opened fire at a Nile cruiser in Assiut, but no one hurt. Gama'a again claimed responsibility.
Feb. 19 - Gunmen attacked a Egyptian train in Assiut, injuring one Pole & several Taiwanese tourists. Gama'a claimed responsibility.
Feb. 23 - An explosion hits Egyptian train in Assiut. Six tourists were hurt: two Australians, two Germans & two New Zealanders. Gama'a claimed responsibility.
March 4 - Gunmen fired at a Nile cruiser in southern Egypt, wounding a German woman tourist, who died after being flown back to Germany.
March 7 - Gunmen attacked a train in southern Egypt, 11 Egyptians wounded. Gama'a claimed responsibility.

On March 13 1994, gunmen fired at a Nile cruiser in southern Egypt, but no one was hurt.
Aug. 26 - Gunmen killed a Spanish boy in an attack on a tourist bus in southern Egypt, also wounding his father. Gama'a claimed responsibility.

Sept. 27 - Gunmen shot dead one German tourist and wounded another in a random attack in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada. Two Egyptians also were killed and another German man died of his injuries after returning to Germany. Since this time Egyptian police have set a super-tight security cordon along the single road into Hurghada & there has not been any major incidents since this date, sources indicate.

Oct. 23 - Suspected Moslem terrorists killed a British tourist & wounded three others, along with their Egyptian driver, raking with machine-gun fire the minibus carrying them to a pharaonic temple in southern Egypt.
Nov. 6 - Gunmen opened fire at a Nile cruiser carrying 30 tourists in southern Egypt, but they do not cause any damage or casualties.

Dec. 26 -Unidentified terrorists opened fire near a passenger train in southern Egypt, causing no injuries.

In 1995 on January 12, suspected Moslem terrorists wounded two Argentine tourists and four Egyptians when they opened fire on a train in southern Egypt.
Nov. 8 -Gunmen thought to be Islamic terrorists attacked a passenger train in southern Egypt and wounded 10 people.
Nov. 9 -Two European tourists - a Dutch man and a French woman are shot when terrorists sprayed a passenger train with bullets in southern Egypt. The Gama'a told foreign tourists to leave the country immediately and said it was responsible for the attack on the passenger train in southern Egypt on November 8.

On November 19, suspected Moslem terrorists opened fire on a tourist train heading north from Aswan to Cairo, killing one of the train workers and injuring several people.
Nov. 29 - Gunmen fired 11 rounds at a passenger train taking tourists to southern Egypt overnight, but no one was hurt.

In 1996 on January 26, an elderly Egyptian was killed when suspected Moslem militants opened fire on a passenger train that often carries tourists in southern Egypt.
April 18 - Gunmen thought to be Islamic terrorists massacred 17 Greek tourists outside a hotel in Cairo near the Pyramids. One Egyptian man was killed and 15 people were wounded.

In 1997 on September 18, gunmen suspected to be Islamic terrorists killed six German tourists and three other people outside the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. Nine people were wounded.

In November of 1997, Moslem terrorists ambushed, shot and killed more than 50 tourists at Luxor. All of the gunmen were shot dead by military police or apprehended immediately. The Egyptian government denounced this act and quickly tightened security in and around major tourist centers, news reports indicated in the weeks that followed.

With AFP

ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY