Posted on 10/09/2004 3:06:11 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
TABA, Egypt (AFP) - Egypt put 13 people under close scrutiny, including Bedouin tribesmen, as the authorities hunted those behind the bombings at Red Sea resorts which killed at least 34 people, most of them Israelis.
"Thirteen suspects among those possibly linked to the attacks are currently under tight surveillance," a police source said, without giving any details other than to say many of the suspects were from local Bedouin tribes.
As investigation continued into Thursday night's attacks, claimed by a group linked to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s Al-Qaeda network, Egyptian and Israeli workers searched the rubble of the Hilton Hotel in Taba where most of the fatalities were.
Twelve Russians were known to be missing, according to Russian embassy officials in Egypt.
"There are 12 people whose fate remains unknown. They have not been located in hospitals where the injured have been taken," Vladimir Bondarenko, Russia's vice consul in Egypt, was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as saying.
The attacks -- on the hotel and on a backpacker resort further down the coast -- were the worst in Egypt since a 1997 massacre in the Nile resort of Luxor.
As recovery work went on at the Hilton, Gideon Bar-On, head of the Israeli search and rescue team, said he believed there were another 13 bodies trapped under the rubble.
At least three bodies were recovered from the debris on Saturday.
Speaking to Israel's army radio, Bar-On said rescuers had completed work on the lobby area and were now focusing on the lower-ground floor, where a dining room and a nightclub were situated.
He said work was likely to continue for another two days.
The Egyptian interior ministry announced that the number of confirmed deaths had risen to 34, including 20 "unidentified" bodies, and that 105 people had been wounded.
Israel said most of the dead were its nationals, and put the total figure at 33.
"Twenty-eight of the victims are apparently Israeli and the five others are foreign," said an army spokesman. They were among the estimated 30,000 Israelis who had crossed over to Sinai for holidays during the Jewish feast of Sukkot.
Most of the casualties were recorded at the hotel in Taba, but at least two were also killed in another explosion at the backpacker resort in Nuweiba.
According to Israeli officials, the Hilton attack was carried out by a suicide bomber in a car carrying 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of explosives and a second suicide bomber blew himself up by the hotel pool.
The explosions followed warnings last month from Israel that its people should keep out of the Sinai because of possible attacks.
While some Israelis questioned why the border had not been closed following the warnings, officials called Saturday on all Israelis remaining in the Sinai to leave as quickly as possible.
A group calling itself Brigades of the Martyr Abdullah Azzam and claiming to be part of the Al-Qaeda network took responsibility for the blasts in a statement posted on an Islamist website.
"The Brigades of the Martyr Abdullah Azzam give our Arab and Islamic nation the good news of the heroic martyrdom operations in Egypt, through which our sons in the squad of the leader martyr cleansed the land of Taba of the filth of the Jews," said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
The attacks were condemned around the world, with US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) saying the civilized world must stand together against the forces of terror and defeat this evil".
Two other groups also claimed responsibility for the attacks.
A previously unknown group calling itself Islamic Unity Brigades said it had acted to avenge Israel's assassination last March of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Palestinian radical group Hamas.
Another group calling itself Jamaa Al-Islamiya Al-Alamiya (World Islamist Group) said it had acted to avenge "the Palestinian and Arab martyrs dying in Palestine and Iraq".
egypt is going to say that eskimos are responsible
The lawyers-terrorists in Egypt have been shifting terrorists to Iraq for years
to attempt to murder Americans.
Yeah, the Jewish eskimos.
I expect an all out effort by the Egyptians to thoroughly investigate the obviously uninvolved and punish the innocent.
Why are the Muslims bothering to insult everyone intelligence by even claiming to investigate?
They are proven accomplices by preventing rescue teams from gaining access to the site. If they were remotely interested in saving lives they would of allowed as much help as possible to reach the victims.
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