Tracking down Egypt's bombers

By Roger Hardy
BBC Middle East analyst

Analysts say the attack was aimed at the Egyptian state

The triple bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on 23 July have left a trail of unanswered questions in their wake.

The attacks - on a hotel, a market and a car park - left at least 64 people dead, most of them Egyptians. It was the country's worst attack for more than 20 years.

Like other experts, Dr Magnus Ranstorp of the University of St Andrews regards a link between the Sharm al-Sheikh attacks and the London bombings earlier in the month as unlikely.

The Egyptian authorities will be focusing, he says, on home-grown groups - in particular, the group they hold responsible for the bombing of the Taba Hilton and other resorts last October.

The focus of those attacks, in which 34 people died, was Israeli tourists.

The focus this time seems to be the Egyptian state.

The Sharm al-Sheikh attack took place on the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution of 1952. It also coincided with the trial of some of those accused of involvement in the Taba bombings.

The latest attacks struck a heavy blow at Egypt's tourist industry, which brings in $6bn (£3.5bn) a year.

Al-Qaeda links?

But even if the perpetrators were Egyptian, were they linked to the global al-Qaeda network?

The bombers were probably working "under the Al-Qaeda banner", as Dr Ranstorp puts it. In other words, it is likely they shared its ideology, whether or not they had any operational links with it.

Several claims of responsibility have been made, and as usual it is hard to establish the authenticity of any of them.

One group, calling itself Tawhid and Jihad (Unity and Holy War), says it carried out both the Taba and the Sharm al-Sheikh attacks.

It claims to owe allegiance to the al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and his Egyptian number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Round-up

The Egyptian authorities blamed the Taba attacks on a group of Egyptian Bedouin led by a Palestinian resident of al-Arish, a coastal town about 200 miles (320km) north of Sharm al-Sheikh.

Tourists have deserted Sharm al-Sheikh

They rounded up more than 2,000 people in the al-Arish area and, according to international human-rights groups, many were mistreated and tortured.

Following the latest attacks, dozens of people in al-Arish have been taken in for questioning, as well as Bedouin in other parts of the Sinai peninsula.

Confusion surrounds what role, if any, was played by six Pakistanis the Egyptian police say they are looking for.

Their release of photographs of five of the men prompted a flurry of media speculation about a "Pakistani connection".

This was subsequently denied by Egyptian and Pakistani officials alike. Egyptian police now say they consider the men as missing rather than suspects.

Meanwhile Egyptians are left wondering whether the attacks will provide their long-serving president, Hosni Mubarak, with a pretext to deflect American pressure for political reform.

Mr Mubarak is expected to seek a fifth term in office in presidential elections scheduled for 7 September.