The Interior Ministry's announcement of the arrest of five suspects in connection with the Sinai bombings raises more questions than it answers, writes Amira Howeidy The statement issued by the Interior Ministry on 25 October announcing the arrest of five -- out of a total of nine -- suspects accused of carrying out the 7 October triple bombings in Sinai triggered a new wave of speculation. The statement gave the names of the accused -- with pictures of four provided -- alongside sketchy details of their background. It did not provide any evidence of the possible links between the suspects or how they might have been recruited to take part in the operation, nor did it cast light on the formulation and execution of their plans. In contrast to the almost deafening silence over the security and logistical aspects of the attacks both the Ministry of Interior and the presidential spokesman have sought to play up its political dimensions, insisting that escalating Israeli violence against the Palestinians provided the motive for the bombings. According to the Interior Ministry Iyad Said Saleh, a Palestinian mini-bus driver from Al-Arish in Northern Sinai, was the operation's mastermind. Together with eight Egyptians, also from Sinai, he planned and executed the 7 October bombings at the Taba Hilton, and two resort camps in Nuweiba, that claimed 34 lives, with Israelis, Egyptians, Russians and Italians among the dead. A further 159 people, mostly Israeli, were injured. The Ministry of Interior says that Saleh, in his early 20s, together with an Egyptian, Suleiman Ahmed Saleh Fulaifel, 39, drove a pick-up truck loaded with 600kg of explosives. The timer they were using malfunctioned and the truck blew up before they could escape, killing both instantly. They were subsequently identified through DNA testing. Two other men, named as Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Fulaifel and Hamdan Gomaa Tarabeen, allegedly carried out the attacks on the tourist camps in Nuweiba but managed to flee the scene before the explosives detonated. Both are currently at large. The five suspects arrested in connection with the triple bombings are described in the Interior Ministry's statement as an "aid cell" providing the other four, all Sinai Bedouins except Saleh, with assistance in manufacturing the bombs from ordnance found in Sinai and in stealing the three vehicles used in the attacks. All five are from Al-Arish. According to the Interior Ministry's statement the four accused of carrying out the attacks all have criminal records, including theft and drug charges and, in the case of Saleh, rape. The ministry further claims that six months ago Saleh suddenly reversed his life style and became very religious. The arrested suspects face nine charges, including manslaughter, possession of explosives with intent to carry out "destructive" and "terrorist" operations and car theft. Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdel- Fatah said on Tuesday there was no evidence linking Al-Qaeda to the attacks. In a bid to underline the political message being pushed by the government Abdel-Fatah said that Saleh's involvement demonstrated how an individual could be driven towards extremism in the face of the "injustice, aggression and despair" that results from the absence of any settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. "Israel must realise that more violence against the Palestinians will backfire, and result in more violence against Israelis. And if such violence manifested in Egypt this time, it could also occur in other places of the world," he said. Egypt was not, however, "giving excuses for any Palestinian or others to use Egyptian territory as a base for reprisals against Israelis". On the same day a cabinet spokesperson echoed Abdel-Fatah's statements. But security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press they believed the attacks may have been carried out with help from Islamist groups based outside Egypt, though not necessarily Al-Qaeda. They are not alone in such a view: several experts have raised doubts over the government's seeming emphasis on distancing the accused from any foreign involvement. "The last time we went to war was 30 years ago so how is it possible for this group to have collected such a huge amount of ordnance?" asks Major General Fouad Allam, a former head of the State Security Apparatus. "How were they recruited? How did they fund the operation when they hail from such modest backgrounds? They couldn't have possibly acted alone." Allam believes Israel is "connected somehow" and that the Interior Ministry's statement suggests as much. "The Palestinian mastermind is just too convenient." "I don't believe he was accidentally killed because the timer went off too soon," he added. "It is always in Israel's interest to cause Egypt political and economic damage." It is also in Israel's interests, the former police general contends, to drag Egypt into the global war against terrorism. While this contradicts with what appear to be improved Egyptian-Israeli relations -- recently manifested in Tel Aviv's approval of Cairo's demand to deploy Egyptian forces along the Egyptian-Israeli border -- Allam maintains that "whatever appears to be the case on the surface, [I know] that the state's security apparatus does not trust Israel." Diaa Rashwan, an expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, points out that the criminal background of the suspects does not explain how they were recruited and trained for such an operation, both of which implies the involvement of a third party to which the Interior Ministry's statement makes no reference. "The link," Rashwan believes, "is most probably the Palestinian." "It really doesn't mean anything that one out of nine suspects is of Palestinian origin," Basheer Nafei, a Palestinian academic and expert on contemporary Islam, told the Weekly. "This hasn't affected the relationship between Cairo and the Palestinian factions, nor did it affect Egyptian-Israeli relations or significantly damage Egypt's tourism industry. So it doesn't really make sense that Israel be connected to the attacks." It is not yet clear if Saleh's role in the bombings will impact on the already tense relationship between Palestinian refugees in Egypt and the security bodies. Although there are no official figures the number of Palestinians in Egypt is estimated at between 53,000 and 70,000. Ironically, one of the few observers to find the Interior Ministry's statement convincing is Montasser El- Zayyat, the lawyer who represented, and was spokesperson of, Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya. "Why is it so difficult to believe that a group of Egyptians with no political or ideological background could be moved by what is happening in Palestine and Iraq?" he asks. El-Zayyat is currently representing 25 defendants referred to a military court after being arrested two years ago and accused of plotting to attack the US and Israeli embassies with micro-buses packed with explosives. The plan was allegedly thwarted when security forces arrested more than 30 persons, mostly students from Delta governorates. "This group is one example of how far many here -- motivated by nationalist and Islamist concerns -- are prepared to go in reaction to US and Israeli violence against Arabs," El-Zayyat told the Weekly. "The Sinai group are not very different," he said, "and we should understand that it is a scenario that will repeat itself, and from the most unexpected of individuals."
