3 Are Arrested as Egyptians Close in on Terror Cell in Resort Bombings By <http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=MICHAEL%20SLACKMAN&fdq=1 9960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=MICHAEL%20SLACKMAN&inline=nyt-per> MICHAEL SLACKMAN New York Times August 15, 2005 CAIRO, Aug. 14 - Egyptian authorities said Sunday that they had identified all of the members of a terrorist cell responsible for the July attacks on Sharm el Sheik, arrested three and were continuing to search for others. They also said they had uncovered several caches of explosives and automatic weapons in the desert of the northern Sinai. The arrests capped a manhunt that came to focus on the northern Sinai city of El Arish and the small, poor villages that dot the area. It took a gun battle in the city of Ismailia, not far from El Arish, and a tip from a watchman for a desert farm who reportedly turned on his co-conspirators, before the Interior Ministry announced Sunday that it had identified those responsible for the attack, which killed more than 64 people, including 44 Egyptians. "It is all one chain that is behind the Taba and Sharm bombings," said a senior Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information. The announcement, if proved correct, confirmed a troubling reality that the authorities have just begun to acknowledge: that the northern Sinai, never before an incubator for such radical thinking, has become home to people willing to kill innocents in the name of an unstated cause. The Interior Ministry was typically vague in its announcement about the arrests. In an official statement, it said, "The ministry's agencies discovered the scope of the flagrant terrorist operation and were able to identify those who carried it out, and they already have primary suspects." The statement ended, saying "all details will be announced in due time." The statement did not say whether the authorities suspected any foreigners had a hand in planning or financing the operation. Many of those identified as connected to the attacks came from very poor families, each earning a living herding goats in the desert, growing watermelons or scraping by with part-time government work. The three explosions that rocked the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik took place at the end of July, nine months after the explosions killed dozens in Taba, another resort town not far from Israel. From the start, investigators believed there was a link between the attacks, dashing theories that the Taba blasts had been aimed at Israeli tourists. El Arish, effectively the capital of the northern Sinai, is about 250 miles northeast of Cairo. Its residents have been highly politicized in terms of their support for the Palestinian intifada and, according to local officials, have been involved in smuggling weapons across the border, about 35 miles away. Authorities have identified several of the bombers in the Sharm el Sheik and Taba attacks, as well as other suspects, as having come from El Arish and the surrounding areas. In the most recent developments, authorities said a watchman for a farm in El Arish was arrested as a suspect. The semi-official newspaper Al Ahram reported Sunday that the watchman had led the authorities to other suspects, as well as to the explosives and weapons. Authorities confirmed that in their hunt for those responsible, they tracked two suspects into the northern Sinai city of Ismailia on Friday. After a gun battle in which two police officers were wounded, the suspects were captured, the authorities said. Also on Sunday, a trial resumed for two suspects in the Taba case. Both defendants, Muhammad Gaiez al-Sabah and Muhammad Rabaa, are from El Arish. A third man, Muhammad Felaifel, also from the Arish area, was being tried in absentia. But after he became a suspect in the Sharm el Sheik attacks, he was tracked to a hideout in the northern Sinai and killed in a gun battle with police officers two weeks ago. The authorities said Sunday that the other three members of the group responsible for the attacks at Sharm el Sheik all died when they set off their bombs. Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting for this article. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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