Bedouin held after Taba attacks

2004-10-09 16:02

Taba, Egypt - Dozens of Bedouin tribesmen have been detained on suspicion they supplied explosives for car bomb attacks at two Egyptian resorts that killed at least 34 people, officials said on Saturday.

Israel's counter-terrorism chief, meanwhile, said Israeli tourists in Egypt are still in danger and urged them to return home immediately.

Three car bombs exploded on Thursday night, one at the Taba Hilton just south of the Egypt-Israel border and two in a town of beach huts, Ras Shitan, 55km to the south on the Red Sea coast.

Egyptian officials said on Saturday that 34 people were killed. In Taba, seven Egyptians, three Israelis and 20 bodies still unidentified had been recovered, they said, and two Egyptians and two Israelis were killed in Ras Shitan. Israeli officials put the death toll at 33.

In Taba, three bodies, including that of a toddler, were pulled from the twisted wreckage of the hotel on Saturday, the Israeli military said.

Colonel Gideon Bar-on, a member of the Israeli army rescue unit, told Israeli Radio that 13 more bodies were believed to be under the rubble.

Some Israeli officials believe the al-Qaeda terror network was most likely behind the attack, while Egypt says it is too early to point to suspects.

Dust analysis

At the Taba Hilton, investigators searched the rubble on Saturday for a lead on the identities of the attackers.

Fingerprints were lifted from the apparent car bomb, which had been packed with 200kg of explosives, and DNA samples were taken from nearby body parts to determine whether suicide bombers drove the vehicle, Egyptian security officials said on condition of anonymity.

Investigators also were doing "dust analysis" around the explosion sites to determine exactly what sort of explosives were used, an Egyptian investigator said on condition of anonymity. Samples were being sent to Cairo for the analysis.

The security officials said several dozen Bedouin tribesmen have been detained for questioning about suspicions they provided the explosives to the attackers.

A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 20 people were being held, some of them quarry workers who presumably had access to explosives. Those 20, some or all of them bedouins, appeared to be among the dozens to whom security officials had referred.

Blood-stained floors, walls and ceilings

The head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, Avi Dichter, toured the scene of the hotel explosion on Saturday and met with Egyptian security officials.

At Ras Shitan, several Bedouin tribesmen, including the owner of the camp, were questioned by Egyptian security officials. American diplomats also visited the camp on Saturday, to check on possible American casualties, and quickly left.

In Taba, where the blast brought down a 10-storey wing of the resort, Egyptian and Israeli rescuers used everything from jackhammers and drills to dogs and bare hands to search the wreckage. Blood stained floors, walls and even ceilings, and trees around the hotel were filled with the bodies of charred birds.

Dan Arditi, head of Israel's counter-terrorism agency, said Saturday that Israeli tourists in the Sinai Peninsula are still in danger, and urged them to come home immediately. Thursday's attacks "don't lessen, even in the slightest, the risk that this will happen again," he told Israel Radio.

- AP