 Egyptian security forces have arrested three suspected members of a cell involved in the July bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh that killed at least 88 people, the Al-Ahram daily said yesterday. The semi-official newspaper said security forces were searching for others who assisted or helped plan the three attacks on July 23. âPolice raided some of the hide-outs and they found, in a farm in El-Arish (north Sinai), about a ton of high explosives and are comparing it to the substances used in the three attacks,â the newspaper reported without giving a source.
| I'd call a ton of explosives pretty good evidence they'd found some Bad Guyz... |
Interior Minister Habib El-Adli said yesterday that security forces had uncovered details about the Sharm El-Sheikh attack, identifying perpetrators and arresting the main suspects, the official MENA news agency reported. He did not give details.
| "I can say no more! You never saw me!" |
Al-Ahram said one of three arrested was working as a guard in a farm owned by a Palestinian living in El-Arish. His arrest led to the other two being detained, it said. Authorities suspect the Sharm El-Sheikh attacks and bombings last October in and around Taba, another Sinai resort town, were all the work of a group of Bedouin based in northern Sinai. Hundreds of people were detained for questioning in the El-Arish area after the Taba attack. Al-Ahram said that security officials traced what it described as a âterrorist cellâ by following tracks of two vehicles carrying explosives from central Sinai to Sharm El-Sheikh. It said three members of the cell died at the sites of the Sharm blasts. After the explosions, it had not been immediately clear if some perpetrators had escaped.
| Cannon fodder explodes. Controllers and masterminds and logistics cells live on, to groom more cannon fodder. |
The first cell member blew himself up in a suicide attack when he rammed the Ghazala Gardens hotel in a pickup truck and a second died in a pickup in a market street, Al-Ahram said. A third was killed when he blew up a bag near a taxi rank, it said. Hide-outs related to the suspects were investigated in the areas of El-Arish and Al-Qantara, both in north Sinai, where weapons and explosives were seized, the newspaper said. On Friday, two police were wounded in Sinai in a clash with a group suspected of involvement in the attacks. Officials said at the time one man from the group of about 15 was arrested, as well as a woman believed to be the wife of another member. |