Egyptian Police Hunt 3 Suspects

(CBS/AP)  Egyptian police searched Sunday for three suspected bombers who they believe escaped the scene of country's deadliest ever terror attacks that killed 88 people and sent foreign tourists in this Red Sea resort scrambling to catch flights home.

A fourth attacker apparently blew himself up in a devastating suicide bombing of a hotel, security officials said as investigators pieced together clues a day after the three coordinated blasts which also injured more than 100 people.

Police have rounded up more than 70 people for questioning in Sharm el-Sheik and elsewhere in the Sinai Peninsula. None has been accused of involvement in the attacks, said security officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

The roundups appeared similar to police operations following last October's attacks at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, which Egypt's interior minister has said could be linked to the blasts in Sharm el-Sheik, some 125 miles to the south.

"Security apparatuses must not resort to the same investigation methods after the Taba explosions where about 3,000 people were randomly apprehended," the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights warned in a statement.

Many of those detained after the October attacks complained they were tortured, according to locals and human rights groups.

Police were investigating whether one of three suspects still at large from the Taba bombings was the suicide bomber in Saturday's attacks. The parents of the fugitive were taken in by police in the northern Sinai city of el-Arish and DNA samples were taken from them, a police official in el-Arish said.

The DNA will be compared to bodies found at the Ghazala Gardens hotel, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the investigation's sensitivity.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday the terrorist attacks in Egypt and London appear to be the work of al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, there was a heavy police presence Sunday around the bombing sites and restaurant strips which were eerily quiet.

Security officials suspect four terrorists used two pickup trucks loaded with 880 pounds of explosives, possibly hidden under piles of vegetables. They drove into Sharm along desert tracks from the north to bomb the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay and a crowded coffee shop in an area called the Old Market two miles away.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page »