A manhunt in search of alleged Al-Qaeda infiltrators planning attacks on Sinai resorts has not really clarified the larger terror picture, reports Jailan Halawi Security forces remain in hot pursuit of several individuals who are alleged to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and who reportedly entered the country illegally with the aim of launching a spate of attacks on the Red Sea resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab. Police think the suspects are hiding out in the rugged mountain areas north and south of the Sinai Peninsula; according to security sources, the manhunt is directed at two groups: the first includes five men who reportedly entered the peninsula using fake passports as part of a tourist group, and then disappeared; while the second are alleged to be a group of three Palestinians -- identified as Ramzy Akram Abu Khalaa, Eyad Awad Abu Daif and Nidal Diab Amouri -- who crossed the border and disappeared. The five men in the first group were identified as Abdel-Baqui Mohamed Bassiouni, Islam Fouad Kamel, Ismail Eid Ismail, Hassan Bayoumi Ashraf and Sherif Moataz Eldin Mohamed. Their details are being circulated everywhere in Sinai by the police, at hotels and check points, as well as amongst the Bedouin sheikhs. While the five men's nationalities remain obscure, their descriptions and names raise possibilities of their being Egyptians. There was no official clarification about whether or not the two groups were linked; both, however, were being pursued on suspicion of having plans to carry out terror attacks in Sinai. The manhunt was announced soon after Israel's counterterrorism office issued a statement warning its citizens who were visiting Sinai to leave immediately. The alert spoke of the possibility of Israelis being kidnapped, and also included warnings against visiting Turkish resorts at this time. The manhunt also comes in the wake of a recent statement made by Al-Qaeda deputy Ayman El-Zawahri, alleging that leaders of Egypt's Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya group had joined his group. Despite the subsequent and numerous denials from Al-Gamaa leaders, speculation remains ripe about the announcement possibly being a sign for El-Zawahri's affiliates to launch attacks. News of the manhunt also coincides with the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the US, at a time when anti- American sentiment is on the rise as a result of the US's unmitigated support for Israel's latest aggressions on Lebanon and Palestine. The overall story of the security apparatus's continuing pursuit of alleged militants, meanwhile, remains mired in mystery. Along with the Sinai manhunt, police have reportedly arrested 95 people in Alexandria, Behira, Suez and Cairo on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda. Seventy of the arrests took place in Alexandria between the end of July and the beginning of August. The suspects are mostly university students; the evidence against them appears to be their having contacted Al-Qaeda websites. Islamist lawyer Mamdouh Ismail denied that his clients have any ties with Al-Qaeda, describing the charges against them as "unsubstantial". Ismail said, "it is obvious that the security apparatus is widening its scope of suspicion in an attempt to substantiate the delusion of the existence of Al-Qaeda cells." Several of the detainees' families have filed complaints at police stations accusing security forces of kidnapping their sons and relatives, either from their homes or while they were walking down the street. Family members tried to get Alexandria MPs to help identify where their relatives are being detained. Alexandria MP Sobhi Saleh ended up submitting an interpellation demanding that the interior minister provide an explanation for the men's arrests, as well as information about their whereabouts and why they have been detained for over four weeks without being referred to the prosecution. Observers are asking why, with most of the arrests having taken place more than a month ago, it took so long for the news to be made public. Equally unclear were the exact dates when the various alleged terrorist elements infiltrated the country. A scarcity of information has surrounded the series of bombings that have taken place in Sinai over the past two years, beginning in Taba in October 2004, and continuing in Sharm El-Sheikh in July 2005, and Dahab in April 2006. Much of the circumstances surrounding the perpetrators, as well as the police's subsequent pursuit of them, has remained vague. Investigations initially attributed the attacks to a group called Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, or Unification and Jihad. At first, it was said that the group was purely local, without any foreign links. In May 2006, the Interior Ministry announced that Palestinian militants had taken part in the planning of the bombings in Dahab. It said several members of the Egyptian cell that executed the attacks had trained in the Gaza Strip, and that Palestinian militants in Egypt were also involved. The recent admission that Al-Qaeda may be planning attacks is also somewhat of a new development. Although the Dahab attacks took place the day after Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to support his group in fighting what he described as "a war against Islam", no official Al-Qaeda connection was pursued at the time.
