Tribesman 'confesses' to supplying Egypt bombers

A Bedouin tribesman has confessed to selling explosives that might have been used in three car bombings targeting Israeli tourists, Egyptian security officials said today.

The tribesman said the buyers, whom he couldn’t identify, had told him the explosives would be used in the Palestinian territories, an Egyptian investigator told The Associated Press.

“The explosives were sold on the assumption that they were going to the Palestinians,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Three car bombs, each packed with 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of explosives, exploded on Thursday night, one at the Taba Hilton just south of the Egypt-Israel border and two at a town of beach bungalows, Ras Shitan, 35 miles south on the Red Sea.

Israeli rescue crews finished their work at the shattered Hilton and went home this evening, saying prayers for the dead as Egyptian civil defence officers cleared the rubble with axes and sledgehammers under generator-powered floodlights.

Egypt put the death toll at 34. Israeli Major General Yair Naveh said at the Taba border crossing that 32 bodies had been found, plus 14 body parts that may include the remains of others.

The dead included Egyptians, Israelis, Italians, a Russian woman and others from the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe, he said.

Naveh also said that in addition to the Isuzu pickup truck that exploded at the hotel, a suicide bomber inside detonated another bomb.

“To our relief, the bomber who entered the hotel did not enter the hotel restaurants, something which would have brought down at least half the hotel,” he said.

Denise Pomero of Italy, whose daughters, Jessica Rinaudo, 28, and Sabrina Rinaudo, 29, died at the Taba Hilton, placed a basket of pink and white flowers at the edge of a dusty hole to the basement shopping concourse.

Their father, Luigi, cried as he looked over the scene.

Egyptian security officials said some of dozens of Bedouins detained for questioning after the car bombings in Taba and the resort area of Ras Shitan to the south have been cooperating with authorities and have provided valuable information about the explosives.

Israeli officials have complained in the past of weapons and explosives being smuggled into the Gaza strip from Sinai. The Israelis maintain they come through tunnels dug beneath the Egypt-Gaza border.

Palestinian and Egyptian officials also told AP that Egyptian security and intelligence officers have been discussing the attacks with officials from the Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad.