Egypt: Mastermind behind Sinai blasts was Palestinian

CAIRO - A Palestinian angered by Israeli-Palestinian violence plotted and then died in the nearly simultaneous car bombings of a hotel and tourist camps in the Sinai that killed at least 34 people, the Egyptian government said Monday.

In a statement, the Interior Ministry added five Egyptians had been arrested and two remained at large in the plot.

The Interior Ministry identified the mastermind as Ayad Said Saleh, a Palestinian who had lived in the Sinai and who died in the October 7 explosion at the hotel along with a fellow plotter, Egyptian Suleiman Ahmed Saleh Flayfil. The statement said the two, identified through DNA testing, had been trying to leave the scene but their timed explosives went off prematurely.

The Interior Ministry said mastermind Saleh acted "in reaction to the deteriorating situation in the occupied territories to carry out an act targeting Israelis." The ministry accused Saleh of turning "to religious fanaticism" after a criminal past that included a rape charge.

Monday's Interior Ministry statement made no mention of a broader conspiracy in the Oct. 7 bombing. Fingers had been pointed at Al-Qaida, the anti-Western, anti-Israeli terror network known for the kind of secretive, sophisticated planning believed necessary to pull off an attack like the Sinai bombings.

A senior Egyptian security officer told The Associated Press Saleh had links to a Palestinian Islamic group in Gaza, but would not say which group. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two other suspects were said to be at large: Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Flayfil, brother of Suleiman Flayfil, and Hammad Gaman Gomah Tarabeen. Mohamed Flayfil was accused of carrying out the attack on one of the campgrounds and Tarabeen was accused of carrying out the third bombing.

The ministry said police had arrested five suspects who had lower level roles, including obtaining explosives and the cars used in the attacks. The statement did not say when the five were arrested or provide other details of their capture.

The ministry said the three cars used in the bombings were stolen and the explosives were salvaged from the remains of fighting in the Sinai, which has been fought over by Egyptians and Israelis. The car bombs, according to the statement, were built using spare parts from washing machines and other equipment.

Egypt is believed to have largely squashed homegrown terrorism in a crackdown on militant groups in the 1980s and 90s. There has not been a terror attack blamed on Egyptian Islamic militant groups like Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya or Egyptian Islamic Jihad since the 1997 massacre of 58 foreign tourists at a pharaonic temple in the southern city of Luxor.

An offshoot of Egyptian Islamic Jihad is led by Al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor.

The Taba Hilton was heavily damaged in the worst of the Oct. 7 blasts. Two other car bombs exploded at bungalow campgrounds in nearby Ras al-Satan, also in the Sinai Peninsula. The resorts were packed with Israeli tourists who had traveled to the Sinai during a Jewish holiday.

Monday's Interior Ministry statement said the Egyptian suspects were residents of the Sinai, territory Israel had captured from Egypt in the Six-Day War and returned in 1982 under terms of the first Israeli-Arab peace treaty. The statement said Saleh, the Palestinian, lived in the Sinai town of Al-Arish.

The Hilton in the Sinai town of Taba that was the main target of the attacks had been built by Israelis. Taba, a tiny parcel of land on the Red Sea shore next to the Israeli town of Eilat, was not initially returned to Egypt under the peace treaty. Israel claimed the international border placed Taba inside Israel, but international arbitrators ruled against the claim, and Israel returned Taba to Egypt in March 1989.

Egypt has stood by the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty despite tense relations with Israel and opposition by many of its citizens, who identify with the Palestinians and question how an Arab government can pledge peace with Israel amid Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Thousands of Israelis had regularly streamed into the Sinai to visit Taba and gamble in the Hilton's casino.

	IDF rescue personnel searching for survivors in the rubble of the Taba Hilton the day after the Sinai attacks. (Reuters)