Egypt police clash with gunmen
2005-07-25 18:24
Al-Arish, Egypt - Egyptian police exchanged fire with Bedouin gunmen on Monday in the Sinai mountains where two Pakistanis suspected over the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings may have been hiding, security officials told reporters.
The armed clashes were taking place about 30km away from Sharm el-Sheikh in the vicinity of the villages of Khurum and Rueissat which police said they raided overnight.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
"Two Pakistanis had been staying there and it is suspected that the bombs were assembled in this area" an intelligence source said.
Police have distributed pictures of six Pakistanis wanted over Saturday's attacks, the deadliest in Egypt. AFP obtained pictures of five, identified as as Rashid Ali, 26, Mohammed Anwar, 30, Mohammed Ikhtar, 30, Tasadaq Hussein, 18, and Mohammed Aref, 36.
Hospital officials say the bombings killed 88 people while the health and tourism ministries have reported up to 64 confirmed dead, most of them Egyptians.
130 suspects rounded up
Police said searches and arrests were ongoing throughout the Sinai peninsula with some 130 suspects rounded up so far.
Passports of the six Pakistani suspects had been found in an unspecified Sharm el-Sheikh hotel, police said, adding that one of them may have died in the bombings but stressing that they were not necessarily the bombers.
Us and British pressure
Pakistan has come under intense pressure from its allies Britain and the United States to crack down hard on Islamic militants since the London bombings and subsequent attacks in the British capital and elsewhere.
Islamabad said however that it had received no official information yet from Egypt over police claims regarding its nationals.
President Pervez Musharraf has launched ongoing nationwide raids against mosques and Islamic seminaries, or madrassas, in a bid to uproot clerics preaching anti-Western hatred.
According to human rights groups, Egyptian forces swept Sinai and arrested up to 3 000 people following deadly anti-Israeli bombings in the nearby Red Sea resorts of Taba and Nuweiba in October.
- SAPA