Two Egyptian men suspected of involvement in bombing three Red Sea resorts last year were killed yesterday after five days of gun battles with police in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, security sources said. Police have fought since Tuesday with Bedouin, who were believed to be hiding several bomb suspects, in the Ras Sudr area of central Sinai, 150 km east of Cairo.
The sources said two suspects, Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Fulayfel and Hammad Gumaa, were killed after several hours of shooting yesterday. Investigators found bullet casings, automatic weapons and hand grenades in the area, they said. The Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the report. The ministry previously said another bomb suspect, Mohamed Abdel Rahman Badawi, also Egyptian, was killed on Tuesday in an earlier gun battle with police in the same region of the Sinai Peninsula.
Security sources said that four policemen were wounded in clashes on Friday. They said one died of his wounds overnight. Two other suspected bombers were killed in the Taba attack when their bomb went off early. Egypt has said they were not part of a wider network or linked to Al-Qaeda. Police said in October they had arrested five Sinai Bedouin as accomplices in the bombings. Most of them were from the north coast town of El Arish, near the Israeli border.
Human rights groups have said the authorities detained up to 2,500 people for questioning after the bombings, subjecting many to torture. Egyptian officials deny the torture. Security sources said the authorities had freed 90 Sinai residents, but they did not say how many remained in custody. |