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Africa North

Egypt Sentences 3 Extremists to Death

2006-09-08

ISMAILIA, Egypt (AP) - A state security court Thursday sentenced three members of an Islamic militant group to death for their role in several attacks in Egypt's Sinai peninsula that killed dozens of people in the past two years. Judge Ahmed al-Khashab of the Supreme Emergency State Security Court read the verdicts of the three of 14 defendants, then adjourned the case until Nov. 30, when the verdicts for the remaining 11 will be given. Younes Mohammed Mahmoud, Osama Mohammed Abdul-Ghani and Mohammed Jaez Sabbah are members of the Tawhid and Jihad group blamed for the attacks in Taba and Sharm el-Sheik. The October 2004 bombings in the resorts of Taba and nearby Ras Shitan, killed 34 people, while the July 2005 attack in Sharm el-Sheik left 64 dead. Some analysts said the attacks bore the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network but Egyptian officials have dismissed involvement by the group, insisting they were the work of a domestic group known as Tawhid and Jihad. "No, no, certainly not!"

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Africa North

Another account of Dahab survivors

2006-04-26

Gathered on the seafront outside the Al Capone cafe yesterday, a weary looking knot of men stared silently at the 2ft-wide crater which had appeared on the cobbled street, as if willing it to disappear. All around lay shards of glass, scraps of clothing and discarded rubber flip-flops. Splintered roof timbers hung above their heads and on the steps of the cafe, where they had eluded the hoses of the fire-fighters, were spatters of blood and small pieces of flesh. "It was like a war," said one of the men, Hani Bivars, unable to tear his gaze from the crater. "I saw a child, a baby, lying on top of a young woman who had lost her right foot. I don't know if the woman was the baby's mother, because people had been thrown all over the street. "There were people covered in cuts and people who had lost arms and legs. One of the waiters here was killed immediately. There were parts of bodies in the sea, and some people started to panic and ran into the waves, wading past the body parts to get away." Barely had the debris from that blast fallen to earth when another erupted less than 150 metres away, in the heart of the Mashraba district of Dahab, one of the more unassuming resorts on Egypt's Red Sea coast. Survivors described a bright flash and a noise that resembled an earthquake as a bomb, apparently left on the ground in a bag, exploded on a small footbridge. At least three passersby died instantly and many others were maimed. "One of the dead was an Egyptian and another looked like a tourist," said Hany Asanaf, a hotel manager who had run into the street on hearing the first explosion. "I don't know where the third man was from, because his face had gone." Five seconds later came the third blast, in a narrow street lined with small jewellery shops. Few people were able to describe what they saw or felt: those who survived were all in hospital yesterday. It was unclear whether the explosions on Monday evening were detonated by suicide bombers or with timers. The bombs were described by the Egyptian authorities as primitive, yet the toll was high: 24 dead and 85 wounded. Most of those killed were Egyptian. Three foreigners, thought to be a German boy, a Swiss diving instructor and a Russian national, also died. Among the wounded were three Danes, two Britons, two Italians, two Germans, two French tourists, a South Korean, a Lebanese, a Palestinian, an American, an Israeli and an Australian. Michael Hartlich, a German doctor on holiday, described how a 10-year-old boy died in his arms. "I'd never seen anything like it before," he told AFP news agency. "A child, a baby, blood everywhere, the smell of burnt skin, of burnt hair." The British casualties were named locally as Henry Luce, 42, from Devon, a cousin of Lord Luce, the lord chamberlain, and a man named as Sam Still. They were being treated at a hospital in Cairo. Mr Luce, who has a fractured arm, said: "All I can remember is being blown through the air." Lotta Ericsson, 36, a Swedish diving instructor, described how she emerged from beneath the restaurant table where she had been taking cover with her husband and immediately joined others bandaging the wounds of the injured. "A lot of people were patched up and put into cars before the ambulances arrived," she said. Sir Derek Plumbly, the British ambassador to Egypt, said there had been great loss of life because the area was so popular. "It was a crowded place, full of happy holidaymakers, the majority of them Egyptian," he said. He declined to speculate about who could be behind the bombings, although there were immediate claims that the attack was linked to a tape recording believed to be by Osama bin Laden, issued a day earlier, which again said that western citizens would be targets of al-Qaida. The attacks appeared consistent with the methods of al-Qaida, but also seemed to have opened a rift between the group's supporters and other radical Muslim groups, such as Hamas, which condemned the bombing. Tony Blair sent his condolences and said that the world needed to be "firm, united and resolved" in its determination to stop terrorism. "What is important is that the whole world stands united against the terrorists that want to kill innocent people and prevent countries like Egypt making the progress they and their peoples want to see." The attacks are the third on Egypt's Sinai coast in less than two years. In October 2004, 34 people, including 12 Israeli tourists, died in bombings at Taba and Ras Shitan, while last July 64 people, including eight Britons, died at Sharm el-Sheikh, 60 miles south of Dahab. Terrorists connected to al-Qaida are widely believed to have been behind the previous attacks. Much of Dahab was deserted yesterday, as the Bedouin tribesmen who were the only people to live here before the first tourists arrived 30 years ago made themselves scarce. The few who were on the streets said that experience had taught them to be fearful of the mass arrests which they believe will be the Egyptian authorities' inevitable response to the attacks. Ten men were being questioned last night, but it was unclear who they were. Some tourists were packing up and leaving yesterday, almost all the Israeli visitors had gone, and long lines of cars were backed up at the police roadblocks on the outskirts of the town. While many in Dahab and other resorts feared a slump in business, some Egyptians and tourists were resolved not to be intimidated. About 100 holidaymakers and Egyptians, including the prime minister, Ahmed Nazif, marched through Dahab, chanting: "We love everyone." Graffiti appeared on walls, in Arabic and English, declaring, Stop All War, and Peace Now. At the edge of the crater where Hani Bivars and his friends gathered, a couple of tourists, in brightly coloured shorts and T-shirts, were videoing the hole, and the onlookers, for their holiday home movies.

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Africa North

Dahab body count up to 33

2006-04-26

Three explosions shook the Egyptian Sinai resort of Dahab yesterday, killing at least 33 people and wounding at least 150, a security official said. Witnesses said smoke could be seen rising from the town’s tourist bazaar, and residents said they saw body parts and debris on the street after an explosion at a restaurant. An official with the local ambulance service said many of the dead appeared to be foreigners. The Dahab resort is popular with Western backpackers and budget Israeli tourists. Many Egyptians were also vacationing in the Sinai Peninsula as the bombings struck on Sham Al-Nessim, a public holiday which traditionally marks the beginning of spring. “Around 7 p.m., we heard three explosions close to the seafront alongside a supermarket in the center of Dahab,” French tourist Frederic Mingeon said from the town. “There was a plume of smoke and people started running and screaming.” State television said the blasts appeared to have been the result of remote-controlled bombs not suicide bombers. All exits from the town were sealed off by police. Israel, whose border is less than 160 km from Dahab, immediately offered to send emergency teams to help with rescue efforts. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz “offered to send army rescue teams and doctors”, his ministry said. Hundreds of Israeli tourists were rushing home after the blasts, Israeli police said, although the Defense Ministry could not confirm any Israeli deaths. The Interior Ministry said the blasts ripped through the Ghazala supermarket and the Nelson and Aladdin restaurants in central Dahab. “There was blood everywhere but the victims were evacuated very quickly,” said Cecile Casey, a young French tourist who was spending a few days in Dahab. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak pledged to punish the perpetrators of the bombing. said. “The perpetrators of these heinous acts of terrorism will be tracked down and punished,” Mubarak was quoted by the official MENA news agency as saying. President George W. Bush denounced the attacks as a “heinous act.” “I strongly condemn the killings that took place, the innocent lives lost,” Bush said of the attack. “I assure the enemy... we will bring them to justice for the sake of justice and humanity,” he said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came a day after a new tape of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden surfaced calling for Muslim fighters to go to Sudan to wage war against “crusader thieves” and slamming the international isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government. In Ankara, visiting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemned as criminal and cowardly the Dahab blasts. “This cowardly act which targeted innocent people is the expression of blind hatred of groups which hurt our nation and religion,” a statement issued by the president’s office said. The Palestinian government run by Hamas condemned the bombings. “Our government strongly condemns this criminal act which flouts our religion, shakes Palestinian national security and works against Arab interests,” government spokesman Razi Hamad said. A state of alert was declared at the main hospital in the Israeli border town of Eilat, both to handle any casualties sent for treatment there and to free up doctors for dispatch to the scene. Some 20,000 Israeli holidaymkers were believed to have been in the Sinai at the time of the blasts despite repeated warnings from their government of the risks of attack. Israel’s ambassador in Cairo, Shalom Cohen, told Channel 10 there were three explosions — in a hotel, a police station and a marketplace. Police said the explosions hit the central part of the city where there are many shops, restaurants, bars and guesthouses. The blasts ripped through the town shortly after nightfall when the streets would have been jammed with holidaymakers. Terrorist attacks have killed nearly 100 people at several tourist resorts in the Sinai region in the past two years. Bombings in the resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, near the Israeli border, killed 34 people in October 2004. Suicide attackers in July in the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh killed at least 64 people, mainly tourists.

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Africa North

3 booms at Egyptian resort town - hotels, restaurant targeted

2006-04-24

Three explosions rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab at the height of the tourist season Monday night, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 150 at just one hotel, according to the doctor who runs Egypt's Sinai Peninsula rescue squad. Dr. Said Essa said he was headed to the scene of the blasts and that his casualty figures were for victims at the el-Khaleeg Hotel only. He said there were casualties from the other explosions but he had no details. Al-Jazeera television said one of the blasts hit a restaurant, and authorities said more than 20 ambulances and police cars were rushing to the el-Masbat section of the city. This is high tourist season in the region, and hotels all along the Egyptian coasts could be expected to be at near capacity. Dahab is located on the Gulf of Aqaba on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. UPDATE DEBKA: At least 22 killed, 170 injured in three big blasts at Dahab on eastern Sinai coast Monday night. Egyptian officials reporting this claim the explosions caused by devices activated by timers – not suicide bombers. Most tourists were Europeans on Easter break. No word of Israeli casualties. One explosion at the Gazala hotel said to have left 17 dead, 150 injured. Two other blasts struck a small supermarket and a bridge. Egyptian police seal access and exit to and from Dahab and closes the Taba border terminal. Israeli Magen David medical aid has gone on high emergency and sent ambulances with paramedics and blood supply to Taba. Israeli defense minister offers Egypt medical aid. Many private cars are helping ambulances evacuate casualties. The blasts hit the resort one day after Osama bin Laden released audiotape threatening the "crusader Zionists." A year ago, 88 people, many of them tourists, were killed in a triple blast at Sharm el-Sheikh to the south of Dahab. Two years ago, many Israelis died in multiple al Qaeda attacks in Sinai. DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources add: This year, Israelis joined the stream of foreign tourists to Sinai after Egypt informed Israel and the United States that its security forces had cleared the al Qaeda cells out of their sanctuaries in the central Sinai Hilal mountain range and the Bedouin tribes and the peninsula resorts were now safe. For the first time in three years, Jerusalem did not issue a warning to Israeli travelers to stay clear of Sina for the Passover holiday which ended last week. Haaretz: Three explosions rocked Egypt's Sinai resort town of Dahab on Monday night, leaving at least 30 people dead and 160 wounded. One blast hit a hotel, a second a restaurant and the third explosion rocked the resort town's market area about 7:15 p.m. local time (1715 GMT). Egyptian authorities said the blasts were likely not caused by suicide bombers but rather bombs that had been planted. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Dr. Said Essa, head of the Egyptian rescue forces in the region, said at least 17 people were killed at the el-Khaleeg Hotel alone. An official with the local ambulance service said many of the dead appeared to be foreigners but there were no immediate reports of any Israeli casualties. Rescue forces in the southern Israeli city of Eilat are on highest alert and are prepared for an evacuation of wounded Israelis back north across the border. Magen David Adom emergency medical services said is has about 20 ambulances were standing by at the Taba border crossing between Israel and Egypt if needed. MDA offered rescue assistance to its Egyptian counterpart through the International Red Cross and the Egyptian Red Crescent but has not received a reply, the service said in a statement. Eilat's hospital is calling on people to donate blood. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the Israel Defense Forces to offer rescue and medical assistance to Egypt. There was no immediate response to the offer. The IDF moved into a higher state of alert and rescue and medical units in the Homefront Command increased their level or readiness. Channel 10 TV reported the IDF had closed the Taba crossing, preventing vehicles from entering Sinai. It said a stream of Israeli vehicles were leaving Egypt. "We don't know of Israelis" who were hurt, Israel's ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, told Channel 10, though some Israelis were known to be in Dahab. This is high tourist season - part of a five-day Egyptian holiday - and hotels all along the Egyptian coasts could be expected to be at near capacity. "There is smoke coming from the area and there are people running everywhere," said a witness, who did not want to be named. Body parts and debris were seen in the streets after an explosion in a tourist restaurant, other residents said. One visitor said cars and buses leaving the resort were being stopped by police. "There were body parts and debris in the street ... There are ambulances and cars taking people to hospital," said another resident who also did not want to be named. Dahab is located on on the Gulf of Aqaba on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. Monday is part of a five-day spring holiday in Egypt. Cohen said the best thing Israeli tourists in Sinai could do now would be to "go home." Cohen said there have been repeated warnings from the Israeli government against visiting the Sinai Desert, where Israelis have been targeted in attacks in the past. "Unfortunately, the warnings came true," he said. There have been a string of attacks in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula over the past 18 months, including deadly Al-Qaida-style bombings in the Egyptian resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan in October 2004 and in Sharm el-Sheikh in July. Groups claiming links to Al-Qaida took responsibility for those attacks, and Egyptian authorities say new Islamic militant groups have arisen in the peninsula - but they are still trying to determine if they have any real connection to al-Qaida or other international terrorists.

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Africa North

Militant Says He Helped Plan Egypt Attacks

2006-02-26

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) - A suspected militant has confessed to a role in planning deadly bombings in three tourist resorts in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, prosecutors said Saturday. Osama Abdel-Ghani el-Nakhlawi, who was arrested in September, told interrogators that he participated in planning and making preparations for October 2004 bombings at the resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan as well as a July attack in Sharm el-Sheik, the prosecutors told the court at the trial of two other suspects in the Taba attack. El-Nakhlawi will be brought in as a third defendant in the trial, joining defendants Mohammed Gayez Sabbah and Mohammed Abdullah Rabaa, the prosecution said. The trial, before an emergency court, is the first in connection with the Oct. 7 car bombings in Taba on the Israeli-Egyptian border, in which 34 people were killed. Egyptian security officials have long said the Taba blast was connected to the July 23 suicide bombings in Sharm el-Sheik, which killed at least 64 people. The two attacks prompted massive sweeps in the mountainous deserts of the Sinai Peninsula. Prosecutors said they would present new evidence in the trial based on testimony from 19 other suspects arrested in the wake of the Sharm attacks, some of whom prosecutors said have since confessed to helping hide militants behind the Taba bombings. The trial, which began last year, was adjourned until March 25. Sabbah and Rabaa have pleaded not guilty on a number of terror-related charges.

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Israel-Palestine

Israel, Paleos fear al-Qaeda infiltration

2005-09-16

Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Thursday said they fear Al Qaeda terrorists will infiltrate into Gaza through the open Gaza-Egypt border, where Palestinians and Egyptians have been crossing largely unfettered since Israel withdrew from the area four days ago. In a deal worked out with Israel, Egypt is supposed to deploy 750 border troops to secure the frontier and prevent weapons smuggling, but neither those troops nor Palestinian policemen have been able to halt the flow of people and arms, including hundreds of assault rifles and pistols. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said the chaos at the border had been brought under control to a “very high degree.” But it appeared most of the Egyptian forces had not yet deployed. A trickle of people were still crossing the border Thursday, though the numbers had dropped from previous days when swarms moved freely across the frontier. Some Gazans were parking their cars along the border wall and filling them with smuggled cigarettes and gasoline. Israel fears international terrorists will exploit the chaotic border to infiltrate Gaza and Israel. “We’re talking about Iran, we’re talking elements in Syria, we’re talking about groups like Hezbollah and we’re talking also about international terrorist groups like Al Qaeda,” said Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev. Israel has long accused both Iran and Syria of sponsoring militant groups. Rafiq Husseini, a top Abbas aide, said, “we are even more worried than Israel about Al Qaeda coming here because Al Qaeda will harm us more than Israel.” Such a presence, he said, would hurt prospects for peace and renewed negotiations with Israel. “The Palestinian Authority security apparatus will arrest any suspected Al Qaeda members or other terrorist groups if they infiltrate Gaza,” he said. Islamic militant groups, some claiming connections with al Qaeda, have been active in northern Egypt but there has been no indication they’ve infiltrated Gaza, which until this week has been tightly sealed. Its operatives are prime suspects in a triple bombing that killed at least 64 people in July at Egypt’s popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on the southern tip of the Sinai. That attack came 10 months after bombings at two other Sinai resorts near the Israeli border, Taba and Ras Shitan, killed more than 30 people. Senior Israeli military officials said they feared Al Qaeda operatives could enter Gaza from Sinai and connect with the local Hamas militant group to share expertise and provide weapons.

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Africa: North

2 Egyptian cops killed in Sinai raids

2005-08-26

The massive hunt for suspected militants linked to several recent Sinai Peninsula resort bombings claimed the lives of two senior Egyptian police officers when concealed land mines possibly planted by terrorists exploded, security officials said. The news came as Egyptian authorities imposed a media blackout on the probe into the July 23 bombings in Sharm al-Sheikh after weeks of confusion and contradictory information on the country's deadliest attack by militants. Major General Mahmoud Adel and Lieutenant Colonel Omar Abdel-Moneim were the highest-ranked police officers killed in Egypt since a violent Islamist insurgency in the mid-1990s and the first slain since about 4,000 security personnel launched a massive sweep Sunday of the northern Sinai for suspects linked to July's attacks and October's bombings at the Taba and nearby Ras Shitan resorts. Yesterday's blasts occurred after two land mines exploded on the 1,800-meter-high Halal mountain, about 60 kilometers south of the Mediterranean coastal town of Al-Arish, the Interior Ministry said. The statement did not say if the mines had been planted by suspected militants or left over from previous Arab-Israeli wars. But at least two security officials said initial investigations indicated that fugitives hiding out on the mountain had concealed the mines. The first mine exploded as a bulldozer was clearing a path in the mountain for two vehicles carrying Adel, Moneim and several other security personnel, said the officials. The second detonated after the officers got out of their vehicle to inspect the scene of the first blast. In that case they're not leftovers. After the explosions, security forces found three pick-up trucks loaded with drugs and weapons in the area and arrested five people taking shelter in the mountain. Police have been scouring northern Sinai's deserts and jagged mountains and storming suspected militant strongholds for those behind the terrorist attacks. At least 650 people have been detained since Sunday. Meanwhile, Attorney General Maher Abdel-Wahed issued a decree on Wednesday banning coverage of the investigation into the Sharm al-Sheikh bombings "in order to protect the work of the judiciary," a source in his office said. Accustomed to such measures in a country which has been ruled by emergency laws since 1981, the Egyptian press still carried an Arabic translation of a New York Times interview with Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif. "The reason for this is that the ban was announced after newspapers went to the printers," Hisham Kassem, editor of the independent Al-Masri al-Yom daily said. "But from now on, we cannot publish anything. The rest of the world will be able to talk about this issue except for the people who are the most affected by it," he said. Nazif said investigators were operating along two hypotheses for the multiple bombings which rocked Egypt's flagship resort at the height of the tourist season, the New York Times reported. One theory assumes that the Sinai Peninsula's bedouin population reacted to the crackdown that followed deadly October 7 attacks in Taba and two other neighboring Red Sea resorts. The other is that locals have developed ties with Al-Qaeda network, but Nazif told the U.S. daily there was little evidence to back up this second theory. His comments were probably the most explicit by a high-ranking official on an investigation which has left the media scrambling for reliable sources of information. Even the death toll is not final more than a month after the bombings. Hospital officials on the scene gave a figure of 88, which the government later lowered to 67, including several foreigners. Foreign countries have announced the deaths of their nationals separately. "What the authorities have released is only a tiny part of the information they have," said analyst Dhia Rashwan from the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "There is no security reason to justify the media blackout. This ban is a political decision. It does not aim to protect the investigation but to control public opinion," he said. Kassem said authorities were afraid that leaks on the perpetrators of the deadly bombings and the way they were carried out could expose cracks in the state security apparatus. "The authorities want to avoid embarrassing leaks on those involved in the bombings ... But at the same time the media ban is also a way of concealing the state's failure to find the culprits," he said.

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Africa: North

Police Storm Sinai Militant Strongholds

2005-08-25

Egyptian security forces stormed four militant strongholds in the northern Sinai Peninsula early yesterday, fighting intense gunbattles and arresting 26 people in a massive search for suspects linked to recent bombings in the rugged desert region. A total of 650 people have been arrested in Sinai since a force of some 4,000 security personnel backed by armored vehicles launched the sweep Sunday through Sinai’s desert plains and soaring mountains, a police official said. Authorities were looking for suspects in a triple bombing that killed at least 88 people last month at Egypt’s popular Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai. That attack came 10 months after bombings at two other Sinai resorts near the Israeli border, Taba and Ras Shitan, that killed more than 30 people. Yesterday’s shootouts occurred at four locations near the Israeli border, where police stormed suspected militant hide-outs, two police officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. One battle continued last evening at the top of Al-Halal Mountain, about 50 kilometers from the border, where a key suspect in the attacks - Salem Khadr El-Shenoub - was believed to be hiding with other militants, a security official said. The 900-meter-high mountain is full of caves and valleys, and Shenoub booby trapped entrances with explosives. Police were using loudspeakers, calling on the militants to surrender. "Come out witcher hands up, youse guys!" "You'll never take us alive, coppers!" Three security men were wounded in a land mine explosion in Qusaima, site of another of the battles. The mine was believed to have been left over from the Arab-Israeli wars of 1968 and 1973. "Mahmoud! Don't step on [KABOOM!]... that." In a separate clash Tuesday, a police officer and two suspected militants were wounded in a shootout east of the Suez Canal between the security forces and suspected militants responsible for the Sharm El-Sheikh and Taba bombings. Almost all those arrested so far in the Sharm and Taba attacks are Egyptians, and authorities have not said whether they believe the suspects were members of homegrown militant cells inspired by foreign, Al-Qaeda linked organizations or were directly linked to outsiders. They really don't have to be. The Egyptians have enough insiders they've released from jug. And the cannon fodder they're looking for may well never have been in jug. So far, the new sweep has not reached the level of the wholesale roundup conducted after the Taba bombings. Two men charged in the attacks are on trial in Cairo but deny they were involved. Nearly 3,000 people were detained in that roundup, and some have voiced concern the Sharm bombings may have been the work of disaffected Egyptians in retaliation for the heavy-handed response to the Taba attacks.

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Africa: North

Egypt Court Hears Resort Blasts Testimony

2005-08-16

An emergency court heard testimony from three witnesses in the case of two Egyptians on trial for their alleged involvement in last year's bombings at Sinai peninsula resorts that killed 34 people. Capt. Ahmed Heikal told the Supreme Emergency State Security Court in Ismailiya on Sunday that state security officials had received information from secret sources that the two defendants, Mohammed Gayez Sabbah and Mohammed Abdullah Rabaa, helped prepare the explosives used in the bombings and plan the attacks. Heikal said devices used for preparing explosives, including a washing machine timer, were found with the defendants when they were arrested. Washing machine timer? Perchance were there any freelance film makers in the area doing a documentary? Manaa Gamaan, a guard at one of the bombed resorts, told the court that he saw two unidentified people in a white Peugeot approaching the al-Badeya tourist compound in Ras Shitan, where he works. He saw the car being parked about 50 yards away from the resort and then heard an explosion in a nearby hotel where his brother works. He ran toward the explosion when he heard another explosion at his own resort. Defense lawyer Sayed Fathi claimed the investigations and arrest reports were fabricated and said Gamaan's testimony was coached. Fathi argued that Sunday's hearing proved the case against the defendants "is fabricated and shows the deteriorating level Egyptian security policies have reached." The defendants, who have pleaded innocent, are the first to stand trial in the Oct. 7 car bombings in and around the Red Sea resort town of Taba on the Israeli-Egyptian border, a spot popular with Israeli vacationers. At least 11 Israelis were among the dead and 100 were injured. A wing of the Taba Hilton Hotel was destroyed. A third suspect, Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Flayfil, who was being tried in the case in absentia, was killed in a shootout with police earlier this month.

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Africa: North

Egypt warned about possible Sharm el-Sheikh attacks

2005-07-27

Investigators identified an Egyptian as a possible suicide bomber in the weekend terror attacks at this Red Sea resort and were searching Tuesday for his suspected Islamic militant cohorts — the first break in the probe. A relative of Moussa Badran (search) told The Associated Press that he disappeared after deadly attacks at two other Sinai resorts in October, and that some family members were detained afterward. The development came as two security officials revealed that authorities received information of an imminent terror attack in Sharm el-Sheik (search) several days before the bombings Saturday. But they believed casinos would be targeted, so security was increased around those sites, not hotels. The officials would not say where the tip came from but said headquarters in Cairo told security forces in Sharm to be on alert and to step up measures around key locations. It appeared authorities chose the wrong possible targets to watch, said one of the officials in Cairo. Both officials are close to the inquiry and spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not authorized for release. Security was heightened around casinos on the theory they would be attacked because Israelis come to Sharm for gambling, which is banned in their country. The government has sacked the heads of security in OfiNorth and South Sinai provinces, an apparent sign of the failures that may have allowed the assault on one of Egypt's most closely guarded tourist towns. Instead of going after casinos, bombers in two explosives-laden trucks targeted hotels. One plowed into the Ghazala Gardens Hotel (search) reception area, leveling the lobby. A second headed for another hotel but got caught in traffic and blew up before reaching the target. A third explosive device, hidden in a knapsack, went off minutes after the Ghazala blast at the entrance to a beach promenade. As many as 88 people were killed. Police had been studying two bodies found at the Ghazala as possible bombers because the remains were dismembered. DNA tests identified one of the bodies as that of Moussa Badran, an Egyptian resident of Sinai who police said has links to Islamic militants. Initially, officials said the body was that of Badran's brother Youssef. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the release of the details had not been authorized, did not give a reason for the change in identification. The second body from the Ghazala is still being tested. A third body in Sharm's Old Market, the site of the other truck explosion, is also being examined as a possible bomber. Moussa Badran — a resident of Sheik Zawaid, a town near el-Arish in northern Sinai — fled the family house soon after a terror attack last October at two other Red Sea resorts, his stepmother told AP. Many relatives — including women — were arrested after Badran's disappearance and tortured, and another brother remains in custody, said the stepmother, Mariam Hamad Salem al-Sawarka. Hours after the Sharm blast, police took DNA samples from Badran's father and siblings and from other families with relatives who have gone into hiding since the Taba attacks, al-Sawarka said. She said Youssef Badran moved to another town near Sheik Zawaid several years ago and she had not seen him since. Investigators have been exploring possible links between Saturday's attacks and those in October against hotels in the resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, near the Israeli border. Those earlier attacks killed 34 people, including many Israelis. Israel warned Israelis a year ago not to visit Egypt, and especially Sinai, because of the possibility terrorists would attack tourist sites. No Israelis are known to have died in the Sharm bombings, although Israeli media have said there were a number of Israelis there at the time. Security forces detained thousands of people after the October attacks — mainly from the north Sinai area. This time, across Sinai, security forces took in 70 people for questioning on Tuesday, bringing to 140 the number questioned since Saturday's attacks. Police detained an unspecified number of people overnight in the villages of Husseinat and Muqataa near the Gaza border. Security officials in el-Arish said that, based on information from interrogations, they were looking for two other people from the area, Moussa Ayad Suleiman Awda and Ahmed Ibrahim Hamad Ibrahim, in connection with the Sharm attacks. Investigators are concentrating on the theory that the bombings were carried out by Egyptian militants, but were not excluding the possibility they received international help, the security officials in Cairo said. They noted that there has been an increasing number of hard-line Islamists in Sinai who may have formed cells. In previous years, the sparsely populated peninsula saw little militant activity, in contrast to the Nile Valley where the majority of Egyptians live and where an Islamic insurgency took hold in the 1990s. Investigators were looking closely at funding for Islamists in Sinai, possibly from abroad. Large sums have come into the area in recent years, and no one is sure of the source, one of the officials in Cairo said. Authorities are also trying to learn the origin of the more than 1,100 pounds of explosives used in the Sham attacks. Police said they were exploring the possibility they may have been brought in from Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Israel. Another possibility was that the bombs were made of old explosives or from explosives used in quarries and hoarded by Sinai's Bedouin inhabitants. Police have set up checkpoints on isolated desert roads north of Sharm, entrances to the region that previously had been only loosely guarded. The attackers may have used such roads to reach the resorts.

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Africa: North

Egyptian police hunt 15 suspects

2005-07-27

Police are searching for more than a dozen Egyptians and local tribesmen believed to have played a direct role in the weekend terror attacks in this Red Sea resort, Egypt's deadliest ever, senior security officials said Wednesday. Egyptian police have come up with a list of 15 names believed connected to the three bombings, including a man identified as Moussa Badran, the suicide attacker who rammed a pickup truck packed with 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of into the reception of the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay. The officials, who declined to be identified because the release of the information had not been authorized, said the 15 people include Bedouin tribesman and Egyptians from the Sinai area. Few details were provided about those on the list, but most are believed to be at large and connected with last October's bombings of Sinai resorts farther north at Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34 people, including many Israelis. The officials said the 15 either carried out, planned or prepared Saturday's three pre-dawn attacks on the Ghazala, a nearby car park and an area popular with local Egyptians some three kilometers (two miles) away called the Old Market. Hospital officials in Sharm put the death toll at 88, but the Health Ministry said 64 people were killed. The hospital said several sets of body parts have not been identified and at 10 Britons and several Italians have been reported missing by their government. The hunt for the culprits has been focussing heavily on villages and towns in the northern Sinai, where people linked to the Taba blast hailed from and thousands of potential suspects or relatives took place, angering many in the local community. Security authorities are trying to find several Egyptian suspects who disappeared immediately after the October attacks and whose names have been mentioned in the investigations. Badran -- a resident of Sheik Zawaid, a town near el-Arish in northern Sinai -- fled his family house soon after the Taba attack, his stepmother, Mariam Hamad Salem al-Sawarka, told The Associated Press. Many of his relatives -- including women -- were arrested and tortured after he disappeared while another brother remains in custody, said al-Sawarka. Hours after the Sharm blast, police took DNA samples from Badran's father and siblings and from other families with relatives who have gone into hiding since October. Security forces have taken at least 140 people in for questioning since Saturday's attacks, including 70 on Tuesday. An unspecified number of people were arrested overnight in the villages of Husseinat and Muqataa near the Gaza border. Investigators are concentrating on the theory that the bombings were carried out by Egyptian militants, but were not excluding the possibility they received international help, the security officials in Cairo said. They noted there has been an increasing number of hard-line Islamists in Sinai who may have formed cells. In previous years, the sparsely populated peninsula saw little militant activity, in contrast to the Nile Valley where the majority of Egyptians live and where an Islamic insurgency took hold in the 1990s. Investigators were looking closely at funding for Islamists in Sinai, possibly from abroad. Large sums have come into the area in recent years, and no one is sure of the source, one of the officials in Cairo said. Authorities are also trying to learn the origin of the more than 1,100 pounds (495 kilograms) of explosives used in the Sham attacks. Police said they were exploring the possibility they may have been brought in from Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Israel. Another possibility was that the bombs were made of old explosives or from explosives used in quarries and hoarded by Sinai's Bedouin inhabitants

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Africa: North

Group claims Sharm al-Shaikh blasts

2005-07-23

A group citing ties to al-Qaida says it carried out the Sharm al-Shaikh bombings that have so far killed at least 62 83 people. The posting on a website came just hours after the series of deadly blasts in the Red Sea resort. The group, calling itself the Abdallah Azzam Brigades, al-Qaeda in Syria and Egypt, said that its "holy warriors targeted the Ghazala Gardens Hotel and the Old Market in Sharm al-Shaikh". The authenticity of the statement could not be verified. The group is one of two that claimed responsibility for the 7 October bombings in the Sinai Peninsula at Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34 people. "Your brothers, the holy warriors of the martyr Abd Allah Azzam Brigades succeeded in launching a smashing attack on the Crusaders, Zionists and the renegade Egyptian regime in Sharm al-Shaikh," the statement read. "We reaffirm that this operation was in response to the crimes committed by the forces of international evil, which are spilling the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya. We declare it loud and clear that we will not be frightened by the whips of the Egyptian torturers and we will not tolerate violation of our brothers' land of Sinai," the statement added in an apparent reference to tourists who travel from neighbouring Israel to Sinai Peninsula for holidays. The Abd Allah Azzam Brigades are apparently named after Abd Allah Azzam, a Palestinian who led Islamic fighters in Afghanistan and was killed in 1989 by a roadside bomb, and was regarded as the one-time spiritual mentor of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. Yeah. Zawahiri had him bumped off, I believe. But it was just business.

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