Egyptian police 'identify bomber'

Investigators have been sifting through the debris for clues

Egyptian security sources have named a man who they believe was one of the bombers who carried out last weekend's attacks in Sharm al-Sheikh.

At least 64 people were killed when bombs exploded outside two hotels and a market in the Red Sea resort town.

The sources said they believed Moussa Badran was the suicide car bomber who wrecked the Ghazala Gardens hotel in Naama Bay.

His is one of 15 names being linked to the three bombings by Egyptian police.

Most are believed to be connected with last October's bombings of Sinai resorts farther north at Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34 people, many of them Israelis.

Click here to see a map of the Sharm al-Sheikh attacks

Moussa Badran fled his family home in northern Sinai soon after those attacks, his stepmother Mariam Hamad Salem al-Sawarka told the Associated Press news agency.

Arrests

Egyptian police have taken DNA samples from four Sinai families - one of them Badran's - as they seek to identify the Sharm al-Sheikh suicide bombers.

Egypt's tourist industry could take some time to recover from the attack

They are said to be concentrating on the theory that the bombings were carried out by Egyptian militants, but are not excluding the possibility that they received international help.

Large numbers of detainees - including some Sinai Bedouin - are being questioned in relation to the blasts.

The involvement of six Pakistanis whose false passports were reported to have been found in a hotel now appears to have been discounted.

'Warning'

Hospital officials say the death toll from Saturday's attacks in the resort could be as high as 88.

Reports say a warning of an imminent attack was received days before the bombings.

A security source told AFP news agency that in response, security was improved in the city. He denied reports that security had only been strengthened around casinos and that the warning was received more than a month before the attacks.

Three Islamist groups, one asserting links to al-Qaeda, have made unverified claims of responsibility for the Sharm al-Sheikh attacks.

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