More Sinai bombings suspects detained

CAIRO: Egyptian security forces have arrested two men wanted in connection with a spate of deadly attacks in the Sinai region over the past two years, the official MENA news agency reported Friday. A third man gave himself up voluntarily, as the search for suspects in the peninsula continued. Security forces arrested Mohammed Hadi Salim Abu Qabal and Yusef Mohammed Hamad Hussein in North Sinai, MENA said. Twenty people, including several foreigners, were killed on April 24 when three suicide bombings ripped through the popular Red Sea holiday resort of Dahab. On April 26, two suicide bombers targeted peacekeepers from the Multinational Force and Observers and Egyptian police in Al-Gura, in North Sinai, blowing themselves up but causing no other fatalities. One of the Al-Gura bombers was Mohammed s brother, MENA quoted security sources as saying. It added that another brother died in a shootout with police on April 30. Mohammed Eid Hamdan, the man who surrendered, was a brother of Attallah Eid Hamdan, believed by police to be the leader of the cell that targeted Dahab, and who died in the attacks, MENA noted. The Ministry of Interior has blamed the string of attacks on an Islamic militant group called Tawhid wal Jihad (Unification and Holy War). 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. AFP