CAIRO, 23 August 2005 — Egyptian police yesterday detained 500 people for questioning in a massive search for militants in Sinai following a series of terrorist attacks in the peninsula, security officials said. About 3,500 police, backed by at least 20 armored cars, took part in the operation. Some officers went from house to house in El-Arish, the principal town in northeast Sinai and about 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. Others fanned out into the desert.

Some 3,000 men backed by armored vehicles were involved in the vast operation which kicked off at dawn near the northern town of Sheikh Zuayed and was expected to last several days, the sources said. On Sunday, security forces arrested around 250 people during a raid targeting an explosives smuggling ring in the town of El-Arish on the Mediterranean coast, they added.

Most of the 500 were detained in El-Arish, where the sweep began at dawn, said a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to issue statements. The official added many detainees were taken in for questioning and are not expected to be charged. Sinai has been the scene of several major terrorist attacks during the past year.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s state newspapers, which dominate the printed media, are rooting for President Hosni Mubarak in the country’s first presidential elections despite instructions to be neutral, opposition parties said yesterday. State-owned newspapers have written editorials overtly endorsing Mubarak and the platform of his ruling National Democratic Party for the Sept. 7 vote. Some critics also say they have made fun of some opposition parties and their ideas.

The state papers have devoted much of their front page space to Mubarak’s campaign promises, often confining rivals to a few paragraphs at the bottom or to the inside pages. Opposition parties complained that Al-Ahram, the most prestigious Egyptian newspaper with a history dating back to 1876, was one of the worst offenders under new editor in chief Osama Soraya, who was appointed on July 4. Soraya denied bias.

An independent monitoring organization said it had received a disproportionate number of complaints about the front page of Al-Ahram, which has often given more space to Mubarak’s campaign than to all other nine campaigns put together. Ghada Shahbender, spokeswoman for the monitoring group Shayfeencom, said: “The main issue has been the page one coverage in Al-Ahram.”

Magdi Sirhan, spokesman for the campaign of Wafd Party candidate Noman Gomaa, said: “There’s clearly bias in the amount of coverage they (the state papers) give the candidates and in the language they use in their coverage.” “In the editorials there is complete partisanship on the part of the writers in favor of President Mubarak,” he added.

Wael Nawara, spokesman for candidate Ayman Nour of the liberal Ghad (tomorrow) Party, said he never expected much else from the state newspapers, adding that the Ghad Party would like to convert them into truly independent entities. Some of parties say they have complained about coverage to the presidential electoral commission but have not had a reply.