Al ARISH, Egypt, 29 July 2005 — Egyptian authorities said yesterday they have arrested some Bedouins suspected in smuggling explosives used in carrying out the series of blasts that rocked the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh that claimed the lives of 88 people.
“We are quite sure that they helped the bombers by smuggling the explosives through the mountains of Taba and this is progress in our investigations and will lead us to the main perpetrators,” a security source told Arab News.
Police confirmed that the suicide bomber who blew up the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay was named Moussa Badran.
Umm Hashem, the mother-in-law of Badran who lives in a small Bedouin flat in Sheikh Zawaid , a town near Al-Arish in northern Sinai, told Arab News that 22-year-old Badran used to work as a farmer in a nearby farm and he never went to university.
“The last time I saw him was 9 months ago and before that he had become religious, but that does not mean he was radical,” said Umm Hashem. “His two brothers were also arrested after the Taba attacks last October and the youngest who is 18-years-old, is still in custody.”
Umm Hashem added that Badran’s father has gone through the DNA test and he was told that they matched the remains of the body found at Ghazala Gardens Hotel.
Badran’s cousin said that Badran’s older brother, Youssef, is also being hunted by police. “But before police started looking for him, he disappeared on the second day of the bombings,” said Eid Badran. “But I don’t think he took part in the attacks since I saw him a couple of hours after the news of accident was announced on TV,” he added.
Police sources said that Badran was connected to some of the extremist groups in Egypt that were also connected to Taba bombings, but didn’t elaborate.They added that that most of explosives utilized in Sharm El-Sheikh blasts are consistent with the ones used in Taba clashes and a similar strategy for the attacks was followed in both incidents in terms of the timing of the explosions and their location.
A top official security source told Arab News that Badran was a close friend of Muhammed Ahmed Fulayfel, the third main suspect of the Taba blast, who is being tried in absentia and who is said to be the mastermind of Sharm El-Sheikh attacks.
