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BEIRUT, Lebanon - A Lebanese newspaper published on Friday a statement purportedly from al-Qaida claiming responsiblity for deadly bombings in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. It was the fifth separate claim in the attack and could not be verified. The statement, allegedly issued by al-Qaida's media office and signed "International Islamic Front," was e-mailed Thursday night to Sada al-Balad, an independent newspaper, which published it on the front page Friday. At least 34 people died when car bombs targeting Israeli tourists in Egypt exploded Oct. 7 at the Taba Hilton and two bungalow campgrounds on the Sinai Peninsula, across the border from...

Conspiracy Theories in the Egyptian Media Concerning the Terrorist Attacks in Sinai Following the recent terrorist bombings in Sinai, there have been many reports in the Arab media involving conspiracy theories. This includes Yasser Arafat's national security advisor Jibril Rajoub, who pointed a finger at the U.S. and Israel, noting that they stood to gain the most from the attacks (see MEMRI TV -http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=281)(1) The following are reports in the Egyptian media that blame the U.S. and Israel for the Taba attacks. In a response to a journalist's question during his recent visit to Italy, President Hosni Mubarak rejected the...

TABA, Egypt (AP) - Salem Hameed has lived in his tin-and-wood hut at the foot of the red mountain range for most of his 42 years. Asked where he's from, his answer is not Egypt or Sinai or Taba, but al-Karadma - the name of his clan. Many Bedouins on the Sinai Peninsula are shedding their historically nomadic ways, like Hameed, whose desert wandering always takes him back to his hut for the nearby water and electricity - and now for his television set. They are now more likely to be running hotels, groceries or souvenir shops than herding goats....

TABA, Egypt — A female suicide bomber is believed to have taken part in the terrorist attack on the Red Sea hotel in which at least 31 persons died, Israeli and Egyptian military officials said last night. A woman, whose decapitated body was found at the back of the Hilton, is thought to have been acting with two other terrorists who rammed explosives-laden cars into the front of the Hilton Hotel in the Sinai resort town of Taba on Thursday night. "Our soldiers were shown a body by the Egyptians. It was a woman. Her head had been blown off....

TABA, Egypt (AP) - 1008egypt-blasts Investigators lifted fingerprints, swabbed dust and collected tissue from the wreckage of three car bombings Saturday and detained dozens of Bedouin tribesmen, including quarry workers who could have provided the explosives that killed at least 34 people. Israel blamed al-Qaida for the Thursday night attacks in two Sinai resorts, and Egyptian investigators were leaning toward an al-Qaida connection as well. Egyptian investigators said they suspected eight to 10 terrorists targeting Israeli tourists carried out the attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speed boats. They also said there was a chance a...

TABA, Egypt — Israeli and Egyptian investigators said Friday that they believe a Peugeot sport-utility vehicle crammed with more than 400 pounds of explosives caused Thursday's devastating blast at the Taba Hilton, which killed at least 30 people, ripped the front rooms off the 11-story hotel and tossed the mangled wreckage of another car into the middle of a banquet hall. Rescue workers using cranes, bulldozers and chain saws worked late into the night Friday in search of more bodies in the debris of the Red Sea resort hotel, which had been packed with vacationers from Israel, Russia and Egypt....

Egyptian investigators said they suspect that a group of eight to 10 terrorists targeting Israelis carried out the Thursday night attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speed boats. Israel has blamed al-Qaida for the attacks. The Egyptian investigators are leaning toward an al-Qaida connection as well, saying a local sleeper cell may have been awakened to carry out the attacks, Egypt's first terrorist strike in seven years. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said such a group would almost certainly be linked to Ayman al-Zawahri, who led the Egyptian Islamic Jihad before merging his group with...

Palestinian groups deny any involvement, say their policy is to fight only in Israel and occupied territories There is mounting evidence that last night’s terror attacks against Israeli vacationers in Sinai was carried out by al Qaeda, or one of its subsidiaries. Security and intelligence sources say that the type and scope of the attack bears all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda operation. “Al Qaeda has targeted resorts in the past, in Africa and Asia. In addition, al Qaeda has proven it is capable of the degree of coordination required in order to achieve almost simultaneous attacks on three...

Cockroaches Oct. 8, 2004 THEY WANT TO TAKE BUSH DOWN M. Zuhdi Jasser Phoenix physician Yesterday's tragic bombings and murders in the Sinai demand that we more closely reflect upon the warped motivations of our enemies especially as we enter our elections. An Egyptian hotel is an unfortunately obvious target. Many analysts have cited the primary short-term goal of al-Qaida being the removal of the American and western presence from Iraq. Many correctly note that the removal of Saddam and the installation of democracy in Iraq and possibly in the greater Middle East brings with it an antidote to the...

Cairo - The Sinai resort bombings were Egypt's first major terrorist attacks since the 1997 Luxor massacre by radical Islamists, but government officials and analysts said on Saturday they probably don't signal a resumption of militant activity in Egypt, which has shown zero tolerance for Muslim extremists. Egyptian terrorism experts believe Thursday's car bomb attacks on the Taba Hilton and two beachside camps farther south were isolated events carried out by foreign terrorists, most likely linked to al-Qaeda. They said Egyptian Islamists, thousands of whom were jailed, killed or forced underground in the secular government's crackdown on militant groups in...

Egyptian probe turns to Israeli vehicles A state of emergency was declared in Cairo Saturday, October 9, two days after al Qaeda suicide car bombers killed at least 33 tourists, most of them Israelis, in three Sinai resorts and demolished the Taba Hilton. Roadblocks were thrown up on the Egyptian capital’s thoroughfares and access to the big hotels blocked – both as precautions against further attacks and to facilitate the hunt for suspects. Egyptian sources tell DEBKAfile that the Istanbul bombings last year demonstrated that al Qaeda and its offshoots invest too heavily in the creation of surrogate local networks...

At least one Russian national is known to have died and eight others injured in Thursday's bomb blasts at an Egyptian hotel, Russian officials say. They say 12 other Russians who reportedly stayed in Taba's Hilton hotel on the Red Sea are missing. At least 33 people - mostly Israelis and Egyptians - died in the Taba blast and two smaller explosions in the nearby resort of Nuweiba. Israel suspects al-Qaeda involvement in the blast that injured more than 100. "There are 12 people whose fate remains unknown. They have not been located in hospitals where the injured have been...

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...

CAIRO, October 9 (IslamOnline.net) – A cohort of Egyptian security, political and diplomatic experts have concluded that Israel is the only party to benefit from the blasts that rocked tourist resorts in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula on Thursday, October7 , ruling out any possible Egyptian involvement. Former Egyptian Assistant Interior Minister Mohammad Omar Abdel-Fattah said that while analyzing any such operation security experts should always seek an answer to the basic question of who stands to benefit. At least 38 people, mostly Israeli tourists, were confirmed dead after a series of bomb attacks rocked the Hilton hotel in the Red...

Rescuers are searching for survivors of the biggest of three bomb blasts at Egyptian resorts popular with Israelis, in which at least 33 people died. At least 10 people are still missing after the attack on the Hilton hotel in Taba, on Egypt's border with Israel, where most of the victims were killed. Two died in explosions at a backpacker camping area near the resort of Nuweiba, 60km (38 miles) further south. Israeli officials say they suspect al-Qaeda involvement in Thursday's blasts. Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim said it was too early to say who carried out the attacks....

TABA, Egypt - Rescuers Friday dug through the debris of a luxury hotel for victims of a series of bombs at resorts in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula that are popular with Israelis. At least 27 people were killed, with more than 100 wounded, and officials feared the death toll would rise. Israel's intelligence chief told Cabinet ministers Friday that the bombings at Egyptian resorts were most likely carried out by al-Qaida. The intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, made the assessment at an emergency Cabinet meeting convened a day after the deadly bombings, which wounded more than 120. Thousands of frightened...

The death toll has risen to 29, including a significant number of Israelis, in simultaneous terror attacks late Thursday evening that struck at a tourist resort in Sinai, Egypt, which was packed with Israeli vacationers over the Succot and Simchat Torah holidays. Israel suspects that Al-Qaida is involved in the "mega"-terror attack. Among the Israelis killed in the attack, four have been identified as Einat Naor, 27, from Zikim, Hafez Hafi, 39, from Lod, Khalil Zeitouna, 10, from Jaffa, Valerie Segal, from Ashdod and Roy Avisar, 28, from Kfar Sava. According to Israeli media reports, 14 of the 30 bodies...

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti political commentator Marianna Belenkaya) - Three blasts ripped through Egyptian resorts late Thursday, October 7. The majority of those killed were Israeli citizens, who are said to have been the main target of the terrorists. However, the victims also include people from other countries, including Russia. A spokesman for the Egyptian government, Magdi Radi, said in an interview with the Associated Press that the terrorist attacks in Sinai were "closely linked to the developments in Gaza." In other words, he meant that the Egyptian radical organisations that have claimed responsibility for the explosions have thus taken revenge...

(CNN) -- Three bomb blasts late Thursday rocked Egyptian resorts where Israelis were vacationing during Jewish holidays, killing about 40 people and wounding more than 100. The most powerful explosion ripped through the 400-room Hilton Hotel at Taba, a Red Sea resort just across Egypt's border with Israel. One witness described the blast as the "gates of hell." There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks. "The whole front of the hotel has collapsed. There are dozens of people on the floor, lots of blood. It is very tense," witness Yigal Vakni told Israel's Army Radio, according to...

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report – Parts 1 and II on the morning after an terrorist bombing rampage at three idyllic Sinai desert resorts – with two dozen known dead and scores still missing – the first clues have been found to the identities of the hands behind the massacre and their targets. DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources report that the explosives used to tear away the entire frontage of the Taba Hilton and hit the Nueiba oasis campside further south on the Red Sea coast were of Iranian manufacture; the same make as the bombs used in the 1996 Khobar Towers...