Radical Arab Faction Tied to Egypt Bus Raid : Terrorism: Cairo officials say former members of Abu Nidal group may be responsible.

Egyptian authorities believe a radical Palestinian offshoot group not connected to any known terrorist organization was responsible for the bloody attack on an Israeli tour bus this week, security sources said Thursday.

Intelligence analysts believe that radical dissidents, probably from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and perhaps former members of the Abu Nidal group or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, were the most likely perpetrators of the attack that left at least nine Israeli tourists dead.

If their suppositions are correct, the assault would represent the first time that Palestinian terrorists have struck within Egypt, despite their longstanding and vehement opposition to Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

It would also signal growing resentment among Palestinian radicals of Egypt’s recent attempts to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by arranging a dialogue between the two groups in Cairo, several analysts said.

“It means it’s directed (at) Egypt for its job in the peace process, because some Palestinians are convinced now that Egypt is bringing them into an attempt to put the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) on the negotiating table,” one intelligence analyst said. “The object was to hurt Egypt itself, especially in a field (tourism) which gives Egypt great revenue, and to hurt the treaty between Egypt and Israel.”

A senior Egyptian security source, who asked not to be identified, said authorities have identified two Palestinians they believe are the masked men who carried out the attack and have launched a massive manhunt in an attempt to track them down.

There is no record of the men having left Egypt, but they could have left the country under a false passport, the source said.

A third Palestinian who is known to have met with the two men three weeks before the attack has been in custody since Monday. But authorities are not yet certain whether the man, a former resident of Rafah identified as Hosni Abdel Rehim Qaoud, was involved in planning the assault or merely met the two suspects accidentally.

“He met these people three weeks before,” the security source said. “Is he involved? Was it just bad luck?”

The source said officials have reason to believe they may be able to arrest one or more of the alleged perpetrators within the next two days, though he refused to say what clues led investigators to the identity or whereabouts of the men.

“We know them and have their picture,” he said. “There are traces, and if there are traces, we can succeed.”

The Egyptian state-owned newspaper Al Akbar and the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported Thursday that investigators have obtained a three-minute videotape of the attack shot by one of the 20 Israelis who were wounded.

“I used my camera right from the start of the attack, and I’m sure that I managed to film the assailants,” the passenger, Pinchas First, of Tel Aviv, was quoted as saying. First said the attackers were wearing scarfs as masks, but the masks slipped off on the bus.

Police have rounded up dozens of people, most of them from among Egypt’s 500,000-strong Palestinian community, for questioning. In downtown Cairo, auto body shop operators reported that large numbers of car repairmen have been detained by authorities, probably due to reports that the rented white Peugeot used in the attack had been recently repainted.

The car was recovered earlier this week in the Nile delta town of Shibin el Kanatir northeast of Cairo. State-owned newspapers reported that the rear windshield had been smashed and seven bullets matching those fired at the bus were found inside.

Police were also examining an apartment in the same town rented by two Jordanians of Palestinian origin, one of whom had apparently left a passport behind. But a security source said police now believe the passport was not genuine. “The attackers who make this accident leave their passport in the apartment. Do you believe that?” he scoffed.

However, some Egyptian publications have reported that the man who rented the Peugeot, a Palestinian identified as Akram Shihab, is one of the main targets of the probe. And a senior Egyptian security source confirmed Thursday that Shihab is being sought.

Shihab arrived in Egypt on Jan. 21, rented the car on Jan. 27 for 10 days, and left the country shortly thereafter, Al Akbar reported.

Security sources denied reports that the driver of the tour bus, a Jordanian Palestinian identified as Mohammed Said Abdel-Raouf, is suspected of collaborating in the attack. Press reports first raised questions about Abdel-Raouf’s role, citing allegations that no shots had been fired before the bus came to a halt on the highway near the Suez port city of Ismailia.

At least three groups, including the Lebanon-based Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War); an apparently Egyptian organization calling itself the Group for Oppressed Prisoners and, according to Libyan reports, the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, have claimed responsibility.

Egyptian authorities believe it is unlikely that the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad was responsible.