Sinai Bedouins aid police in terror hunt

CAIRO: Sinai Bedouins have pledged their assistance to Egyptian security forces in their search for people suspected of involvement in deadly attacks on Red Sea tourist resorts in the last two years, the official news agency MENA reported Saturday. There is an agreement between all the tribe leaders of central Sinai to help the security forces to find the locations where the (suspects) are hiding, said Abdullah Juhama, one of the elders of Sinai s Tarabin tribe and a former member of parliament. The Bedouins also vowed to search for explosives so that they do not fall in the hands of outlaws, MENA quoted Juhama as saying. Twenty people were killed, including several foreigners, on April 24, when the three suicide bombings ripped through the popular Red Sea resort of Dahab during a peak holiday season. More than 60 people were also killed in multiple bombings against the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in July last year and another 34 people died in attacks further up the Red Sea coast in October 2004. The Egyptian interior ministry has blamed the string of attacks on a group called Tawhid wal Jihad (Unification and Holy War). Seven suspects, including the leader of the Islamist group, have already been killed by security forces and 22 are currently in detention. Police are still searching for six suspects, MENA said. AFP