Egypt says Bedouin tribesman has confessed to selling explosives before deadly attack on Sinai resort

Sunday, October 10th 2004, 11:40 am

By: News On 6

TABA, Egypt (AP) _ A Bedouin tribesman has confessed to selling explosives that might have been used in three car bombings targeting Israeli tourists and investigators were looking into Palestinian militant involvement, Egyptian security officials said Sunday.

The tribesman said the buyers, whom he couldn't identify, had told him the explosives would be used in the Palestinian territories, an Egyptian investigator said.

``The explosives were sold on the assumption that they were going to the Palestinians,'' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Relatives of the attacks' 34 victims, meanwhile, mourned their dead as rescuers finished their search for victims. Israelis, Egyptians, Italians and Russians were among the victims of Thursday night's blasts.

Egyptian security officials said some of dozens of Bedouins detained for questioning after the car bombings in Taba and the resort area of Ras Shitan to the south have been cooperating with authorities and have provided valuable information about the explosives.

Israeli officials have complained in the past of weapons and explosives being smuggled into the Gaza strip from Sinai. The Israelis maintain they come through tunnels dug beneath the Egypt-Gaza border.

Also, Palestinian and Egyptian officials told The Associated Press that Egyptian security and intelligence officers have been discussing the attacks with officials from the Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The Egyptians were seeking information about members of the groups upset about Egypt's plan to help secure the Gaza Strip in the event of an Israeli withdrawal. Egypt has come under fire from some Arabs as aiding Israel; Egypt maintains it needs to ensure stability along its border in the event of a security vacuum left by Israel's departure.

The officials said Egypt is not suggesting the two factions were behind the attacks, but rather are probing the possibility disgruntled defectors from the groups might have been involved.

These discussions were taking place in Gaza and in some Middle East capitals, one official said without specifying which ones.

On Saturday, Egyptian investigators said they suspected a group of eight to 10 terrorists carried out the attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speed boats.

Israel has blamed al-Qaida for the attacks and the United States has said it suspects an al-Qaida role.

The Egyptian investigators also were leaning toward an al-Qaida connection, saying a local sleeper cell may have been awakened to carry out the attacks, Egypt's first terrorist strike in seven years.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said such a group would almost certainly be linked to Ayman al-Zawahri, who led the Egyptian Islamic Jihad before merging his group with al-Qaida in 1998. The Egypt-born Zawahri is now bin Laden's top deputy.

Three car bombs exploded Thursday night, one at the Taba Hilton just south of the Egypt-Israel border and two at a town of beach bungalows, Ras Shitan, 35 miles to the south on the Red Sea coast.

Denise Pomero of Italy, whose daughters, Jessica Rinaudo, 28, and Sabrina Rinaudo, 29, died at the Taba Hilton, placed a basket of pink and white flowers at the edge of a dusty hole to the basement shopping area.

Their father, Luigi, cried as he looked over the scene.

Below, Israeli and Egyptian workers were still clearing debris, but the Israeli rescue and recovery workers expected to wrap up and go home later Sunday.

Zielig Finer, a spokesman for the ultra-Orthodox organization that recovers human remains for burial, said a few Israelis were still unaccounted for. It wasn't clear if more Egyptians or other foreigners were still missing.

``We are at the last stage of recovery,'' said Gideon Baron, head of the Israeli rescue effort. No bodies had been found since Saturday night, but Baron would not say if more were believed buried.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli Cabinet was being briefed on the bombings.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Sunday in an Israeli newspaper that he has no intention of closing the border with Sinai, but criticized Israelis for staying despite warnings.

``When an urgent call is issued to Israelis to return from Sinai, a certain degree of responsibility needs to be shown,'' Sharon was quoted by Yediot Ahronot as saying. ``I hope that they will be able to return there when the danger of terror decreases. That will happen only after an uncompromising war on terror.''