CAIRO — Egypt said it has killed the suspected commander of an Al
Qaida cell that carried out a series of suicide strikes
against tourists in the Sinai Peninsula.
Egyptian security sources said Mohammed Fulayfel was killed in Mount
Ataqa near Suez City. The sources said Fulayfel, 24, was a leading
suspect in the suicide strikes in Sharm e-Sheik on July 23 in which 88
people were reportedly killed.
Cairo has never released the final casualty
toll, Middle East Newsline reported.
"In the course of investigations of the latest terrorist incidents,
conclusive evidence was discovered that pointed to the fact that elements
involved in these attacks were hiding out in a quarry at Mount Ataqa," the
Interior Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Fulayfel was also wanted for the bombings against Israeli tourists in
Nueiba and Taba in which 34 people died in October 2004. In both strikes,
most of the casualties were Egyptian nationals.
In the Taba strike, which leveled a major hotel, Fulayfel's brother was
said to have been killed. The sources said the attacks were facilitated by a
Palestinian connected to the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad in the Gaza
Strip.
The sources said Fulayfel, whose trial in absentia began on July 2, was
killed in a shootout with Egyptian security forces. They said his wife was
injured and taken into custody. The sources did not cite a date for the gun
battle.
"The police forces immediately dealt with the source of fire and it
became clear that Mohammed Ahmed Saleh Fulayfel had been killed," the
Interior Ministry statement said.
Three Al Qaida-aligned groups have claimed responsibility for the Sharm
strikes, which sought to target hotels. Egyptian authorities have arrested
around 150 people, many of them Bedouins in mountain communities near Sharm.
At one point, the Interior Ministry reported a search for nine Pakistani
suspects who arrived in Sharm before the bombings. But after a protest by
Pakistan, the ministry issued a denial and blocked new information of the
investigation.
