http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1511&ncid=1511&e=15&u=/afp/20041025/wl_afp/egypt_israel_attacks_041025192355
Egypt arrests five over Sinai bombings
Mon Oct 25, 3:23 PM ET
CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt announced it had arrested five of the nine men who bombed Red Sea
resorts almost three weeks ago, saying the attackers used stolen cars packed with old
war-time explosives and a washing-machine timer.
The interior ministry said the attacks -- allegedly carried out by a gang including
Bedouin tribesmen, a stolen car dealer and a welder -- were in retaliation for a
massive Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) that killed 130
Palestinians in the space of less than three weeks. At least 32 people were killed
when car bombs exploded at the Taba Hilton hotel just across the border from Israel
and two other tourist resorts along the Red Sea coast on October 7. They were the
deadliest attacks on Egyptian soil since a massacre in the southern Nile resort of
Luxor in 1997 left 58 foreign tourists dead, and occurred as thousands of Israelis
were in the Sinai for a Jewish holiday.
Many of the victims were Israelis. The state prosecutor's office later Monday that the
perpetrators of the attacks would be charged with premeditated murder, terrorism
charges and illegal possession of weapons, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported.
A date for their trial was not announced.The interior ministry said two bombers had
been killed while carrying out the attacks, naming them as Iyad Said Saleh, a
Palestinian aged about 30, and Bedouin tribesman Suleiman Ahmed Saleh, while another
two were still at large. The ministry said the two dead men were not planning to blow
themselves up but were killed when the bomb they were transporting went off
prematurely due to a timer failure. Iyad Said Saleh, who worked as a minibus driver in
the northern Sinai, "acted in retaliation on Israeli tourists for the deterioration of
the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories," the ministry said.
The Palestinian bomber and his accomplices stole three cars and stuffed them with
explosives left over from successive Arab-Israeli wars between 1956 and 1973, the
ministry said. They devised a simple mechanism, operated by a washing machine timer to
set off the bombs. Egyptian authorities identified the Palestinian through DNA tests
on bits of flesh on the wreckage of the car which rammed into the Taba hotel. Iyad
Said Saleh already had a criminal record and had been accused of raping a woman. He
was thought to have recently embraced Islamic fundamentalism. His sister, who was
questioned by investigators last week, said he had left the house with all his
belongings a day before the bombings, without giving an explanation.
The attacks have been claimed by four organisations so far, two claiming links with
Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s Al-Qaeda network, and two previously unknown
groups who cited the Israeli onslaught on Gaza as a motivation. They came on the 10th
day of Israel's so-called Days of Penitence offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, the
deadliest raid since the start of the intifada four years ago. Suleiman Ahmed Saleh,
who died with the Palestinian, as well as two suspects who are still on the run -- his
brother Mohammed Ahmed Saleh and Hammad Gomaa Gamaan -- are Bedouin tribesmen who had
all been involved in criminal activities, the ministry said.
Investigators had enlisted the help of Bedouin trackers to hunt down the suspects. The
five who were arrested are all Egyptians, the ministry said. One was named as Hamdan
Salama Salem, who owns a holiday resort on the coast and provided his accomplices with
information on the two resorts near Nuweiba which were hit the same day as the Taba
Hilton. The ministry also named Mohammed Ahmed al-Seweirki, a stolen car dealer, and
Ihab Mahmud Eid, an electrician who prepared one of the booby-trapped cars. The other
two were identified as Mohamed Sabah Hussein, employed by the national water company,
and Mohammed Abdallah Rubaa, a welder who inserted the explosive devices inside three
vehicles.
Pictures distributed by Egyptian interior ministery Monday Oct 15 2004 showing from
left to right, Palestinian refugee born Ayad Said Saleh, Egyptian Sinai Bedouins
Suleiman Ahmed Saleh Flayfil , his brother Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Flayfil and Hammad
Gaman Gomah Tarabeen. Egypt's Interior Ministry identified nine key suspects in the
Oct. 7 Sinai resort bombings, which targeted Israelis and killed at least 34 people.
(AP Photo/HO)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=5&u=/ap/20041025/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_terror_arrests
Palestinian Blamed for Twin Sinai Attacks
Mon Oct 25, 5:04 PM ET
By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt - A Palestinian refugee plotted the coordinated bombings targeting
Israeli tourists at resorts in the Sinai and accidentally killed himself while
carrying out the deadliest blast, Egyptian authorities said Monday. Discounting the
theory of al-Qaida involvement, an Interior Ministry statement said Ayad Said Saleh
was motivated by the deteriorating situation in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip (news
- web sites), which his relatives fled in 1967, and carried out the attack with the
help of local residents. But security officials speaking on condition of anonymity
told The Associated Press they believed the Oct. 7 attacks on the Taba Hilton and two
beach camps packed with Israelis may have been carried out with help from Islamic
groups based outside Egypt, though not necessarily Osama bin Laden (news - web
sites)'s al-Qaida group.
One car bomb devastated the Hilton hotel in Taba, just yards from the Israeli border,
while two others rocked tourist camps at Ras Shitan, a coastal village 35 miles
further south, killing a total of 34 people, including Israelis, Egyptians, Italians
and Russians. Egypt's Interior Ministry said the attacks were masterminded by Saleh, a
minibus driver born in the northern Sinai town of al-Arish, who was in his early 20s.
Saleh was killed in the Taba Hilton bombing along with a fellow plotter, Egyptian
Suleiman Ahmed Saleh Flayfil, 39. The statement said both men, identified through DNA
testing, had been trying to leave the attack scene but their timed explosives went off
prematurely. Two other suspects were said to be at large: Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Flayfil,
Suleiman Flayfil's brother, and Hammad Gaman Gomah Tarabeen. They were accused of
carrying out the campground attacks.
Police also arrested five Egyptians accused of playing lower-level roles, including
obtaining explosives and cars used in the attacks. The statement did not say when they
were arrested or provide details of their capture. The five are residents of the Sinai
Peninsula, a territory Israel captured from Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war and
returned in 1982 under terms of the first Israeli-Arab peace treaty. The Interior
Ministry said the three cars used in the bombings were stolen and the explosives were
salvaged from war armaments in the Sinai. The car bombs, according to the statement,
were built using spare parts from washing machines and other equipment.
A senior Egyptian official close to the investigation told the AP that TNT obtained
from a Sinai quarry and RDX explosives from war armaments were used in the attacks.
RDX is a key ingredient in plastic explosives such as C-4 and Semtex. Other officials
and prosecutors said about 1,100 pounds of TNT were used in the Taba attack, while
leftover munitions from the Sinai war were planted in two cars used in the Ras Shitan
bombings. The Interior Ministry statement said Saleh acted "in reaction to the
deteriorating situation in the occupied territories to carry out an act targeting
Israelis." It accused Saleh of turning "to religious fanaticism" after a criminal
past, including raping a young girl. The size, targets and coordination of the
attacks, however, caused many to speculate foreign terrorists, possibly al-Qaida, were
responsible. Egypt's Interior Ministry in its Monday announcement mentioned no broader
conspiracy.
Still, some officials believed Saleh and his cohorts had outside help. One security
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attacks appeared to be a joint
operation with outside operators, though not necessarily al-Qaida. Another senior
Egyptian security officer, who also declined to be identified, said Saleh had links to
a Palestinian Islamic group in Gaza, but would not say which one.
"Al-Qaida's fingerprints are evident behind these attacks," said Abdel Rahim Ali, an
expert on Islamic radical groups. "If they are not directly behind them, they must
have incited them through their ideology and guidelines." Egyptian officials want to
avoid linking the attacks to al-Qaida or other foreign militant groups because that
could draw foreign intelligence services, like the CIA (news - web sites) and Israel's
Mossad, into the investigation, Ali said. Tens of thousands of Palestinians live in
al-Arish and the nearby border town of Rafah. Israel has long complained Palestinians
run weapons and explosives smuggling networks between Egypt and Gaza through tunnels
dug under the border.
Egypt is believed to have largely quashed homegrown terrorism in a crackdown on
militant groups in the 1980s and 1990s. A terror attack has not been blamed on
Egyptian Islamic militant groups since the 1997 massacre of 58 foreign tourists in
Luxor, southern Egypt.
As an after thought.....The Muslim Brotherhood about two years ago presented its new
suicide squad at Al Azhar university
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP35802
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Presents New Suicide Bombers Unit at Al-Azhar
University
The Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal, which is owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq
Al-Hariri, recently published an exclusive on a Muslim Brotherhood demonstration at
Al-Azhar University in Cairo, during which the new "Martyrdom Organization" (in
Arabic, Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal) was introduced.[1] Following are excerpts of the
article:
"A group of members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which is banned in Egypt,
revealed for the first time� that it is secretly training some of its young people to
carry out combat operations. The Muslim Brotherhood presented eight of them [March 18,
2002] to hundreds of demonstrators at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and stressed that
they were preparing for the 'struggle against Israel.'"
"The students who belong to the [Muslim] Brotherhood movement organized a
demonstration at Al-Azhar University in support of the Palestinian Intifada, like
those held at various Egyptian universities."
"The Muslim Brotherhood offered the Al-Mustaqbal daily exclusive coverage of the
demonstration, saying it would be 'different than all previous demonstrations.'"
"Some 1,000 students heard a speech, via cellular phone, by Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad
Yassin, who congratulated the Egyptian students for their activities."
"Eight of the young students appeared with their faces covered by a black cloth, and
on their heads were red bands upon which was written, 'Jihad is our way.'"
"The eight demonstrated martial arts� karate and judo and their ability to break
boards, free hostages from their captors, and carry out surprise attacks against armed
soldiers� The demonstration lasted for half an hour, and was accompanied by
loudspeakers [broadcasting] a song praising Hamas, to the exultation of the students.
Finally, after removing their face coverings and changing their clothes, the eight
dissolved into the crowd."
"Al-Mustaqbal managed to interview one of the eight� who said that he was 'one of the
first of the martyrs [suicide bombers] to choose to die in order to defend the Muslim
Palestinian people.'"
"When asked whether this [the demonstration] was a provocation to the Egyptian
authorities, and whether this implies that the Muslim Brotherhood is choosing a return
to domestic violence, he answered: 'Our preparations are directed only against the
Israeli enemy. We support Fatah, Hamas, [Islamic] Jihad, and the other factions of the
Palestinian resistance. We want only to liberate Palestine. We do not permit the blood
of Muslims, and therefore we will not carry out domestic violence�"
[1] Al-Mustaqbal (Lebanon), March 19, 2002.
My point is anybody could have done the Sinai hotel bombings.....Not just Al
Qa'ida.....We need to stop jumping to conclusions and get our facts straight first.
Michael C. Johnson
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