 Investigators lifted fingerprints, swabbed dust and collected tissue from the wreckage of three car bombings Saturday and detained dozens of Bedouin tribesmen, including quarry workers who could have provided the explosives that killed at least 33 people. Israel blamed al-Qaida for the Thursday night attacks in two Sinai resorts, and Egyptian investigators were leaning toward an al-Qaida connection as well. Egyptian investigators said they suspected eight to 10 terrorists targeting Israeli tourists carried out the attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speed boats. They also said there was a chance a local sleeper cell of Egyptians might have been activated to stage the attacks, Egypt's first terrorist strike in seven years. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the investigators said such a group would almost certainly be linked to Ayman al-Zawahri, who led the extremist Egyptian Islamic Jihad before merging the group with al-Qaida in 1998. The Egypt-born Zawahri is Osama bin Laden's top deputy. |