Al-Qaida link suspected in Egypt bombings

Israel’s deputy defence minister said today that Palestinian militants apparently were not involved the deadly car bombings in two Egyptian resorts crowded with Israeli tourists.

The deputy minister, Zeev Boim, said he suspected a group affiliated with the al-Qaida terror network was behind last night’s attacks which killed at least 19 people. Boim said Israel had very little information at the moment.

“There has not been a full investigation,” he told Israel Army Radio. “I think it is early to assess exactly what we are talking about. On the face of things, this is different from what we are familiar with from Palestinian terrorist groups.”

No established groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings, but three previously unknown groups claimed separately to have carried out the attacks.

Tawhid Islamic Brigades published a claim on a website that has been used frequently for such claims from Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

And Jamaa Al-Islamiya Al-Alamiya, or World Islamist Group, called an international news agency in Jerusalem. Neither group offered detail of how it carried out the attack, as such claims usually do, and there was no way to confirm their authenticity.

A third group that called itself the “Brigades of the Martyr Abdullah Azzam, al-Qaida, in the Levant Egypt,” posted a claim on an Islamic website known for running messages purportedly from the al Qaida terror network. The claim did not say how the attacks were executed, but described them as a message to the Palestinians, Muslims everywhere, and the Israeli government and people.