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Rediff.com  » News » Egypt: 70 arrested in hunt for attackers

Egypt: 70 arrested in hunt for attackers

July 24, 2005 16:40 IST
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The Egyptian police scoured for clues on Sunday and struggled to identify dozens of the 88 people killed in the three bomb blasts that rocked the Sharm-el-Sheikh Red Sea resort, sending foreign tourists scrambling to catch flights home.

More than 70 people have been detained in Sharm el-Sheikh and elsewhere on the Sinai Peninsula for questioning over Saturday's bombings. However, none have been accused of involvement in Egypt's deadliest-ever terror attack, said security officials, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the inquiry.

The roundups appeared similar to police operations after the October 2004 attacks at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, when 3,000 people were detained and many complained of torture, according to local people and human rights groups.

Some 200 of those are believed to still be in custody, including two Egyptian suspects whose trial is set to resume on Sunday.

Egypt's interior minister has said investigators are looking into whether there were links between the Taba and Sharm blasts, both of which took place despite the massive presence of Egyptian security forces in Sinai, a strategically important area bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Local investigators are also examining the possibility that foreigners carried out Saturday's blasts that levelled the reception area of the luxury Ghazala Garden Hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh's popular Naama Bay district and ripped apart a coffee house crowded with Egyptians in the nearby Old Market.

 

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