Egypt bomb investigators find suspected bomber's body
Investigators have identified a body they suspect of being a suicide bomber in the weekend terror attacks in Sharm El Sheikh. He is believed to be an Egyptian with Islamic militant ties.
Police have hauled in dozens more people for questioning over the attack.
Meanwhile, security officials revealed that Egyptian authorities received information about an imminent terror attack in Sharm El Sheikh days ahead of the devastating bombings but believed it would target casinos, so security was increased around those sites.
The officials, who cannot be named, would not say where the tip came from, but said security had been put on alert in the resort on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula several days before the pre-dawn Saturday attacks.
But instead of casinos, the bombers in two explosives-laden trucks targeted hotels just after 1am on Saturday morning.
One ploughed into the Ghazala Gardens reception area, levelling the lobby. A second headed for another hotel but got caught in traffic and detonated before reaching its target.
Police using DNA tests identified one of the bodies found at the Ghazala site as Youssef Badran, an Egyptian Sinai resident who they said has links to Islamic militants, security officials said. Those links led the officials to suspect he was the bomber in the attack, they said.
Police held members of Badran’s family for questioning and were trying to determine his associates, the officials said.
A third group on Tuesday issued a claim of responsibility for the Sharm attacks. The previously unknown group, Egyptian Tawhid and Jihad, said it attacked the “Crusaders” in Sharm on orders from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian-born deputy Ayman al-Zawahri “in support of our brothers in Iraq and Afghanistan”.
The group said this was its first ever statement. Its name appeared taken from that of the Iraq-based organisation, Tawhid and Jihad, led by militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who later pledged his allegiance to bin Laden and renamed his group al-Qaida in Iraq.
The authenticity of the claim, like those by two other groups issued soon after the attacks, could not be verified. The other claims were issued by another al-Qaida-linked group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, and an apparently local organisation, the Holy Warriors of Egypt.
Across Sinai, security forces took in 70 people for questioning on Tuesday, bringing to 140 the number detained since the attacks.
