Israeli officials blame al-Qaida for blasts at Sinai tourist sites

By Chicago Tribune and The Associated Press

SEBASTIAN SCHEINER / AP Rescuers stand outside the Hilton hotel in Taba, Egypt, yesterday. Egyptian officials blamed Thursday's attack on the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Three previously unknown groups made public claims of responsibility on the Web and to media outlets after the blasts, but they gave none of the details that militants usually provide to substantiate their claims.

Israel's military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, told an emergency Cabinet meeting yesterday that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group was most likely behind the attacks. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militant faction Hamas announced that it had no ties to the attacks, confirming what analysts and officials had said would be an unlikely source for the attacks. Palestinian groups have relied on Egypt as an intermediary in negotiations with Israel, and Egypt plays a potentially key role in mediating Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year.

Egyptian officials said the attacks must be blamed in part on disorder in Iraq and bloodshed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which help recruit willing young militants to extremist causes.

"What happens in Iraq, a meaningless war there, and what happens in Palestine, with no sign of a Palestinian state, gives the generals of terrorism all the soldiers they need," said Egyptian government spokesman Taha Abdel Aleem.

Egypt is a particularly symbolic target for Islamic extremists because President Bush calls the country a leading candidate for the sort of democratization that the war in Iraq was designed to accomplish. Egyptian and Israeli investigators yesterday scoured the scenes of the attacks on the Hilton hotel in Taba and two campgrounds farther down the Red Sea coast in the area known as Ras al-Shaitan. The bombings struck during peak tourist season.

On Islamic Web sites, writers praised the attacks and tied them to a recent audiotape purportedly issued by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who said it is the "duty of every Muslim to liberate Palestine."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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