Gunmen Sought in Cairo Attack on Greek Tourists

Police searched near the Pyramids of Giza and set up roadblocks Friday, seeking gunmen who killed 18 Greek tourists in what could have been a case of mistaken identity.

Police said they were investigating whether the gunmen might have been Islamic rebels who mistook the Greeks for Israelis.

No one has taken responsibility for the attack, in which three men firing machine guns also wounded 17 Thursday at the Europa Hotel.

Islamic insurgents in Egypt have targeted foreign tourists in the past in their campaign to undermine the government. But rising Arab anger over Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon could also have been a factor, Egyptian authorities said.

In a possibly related incident, three suspected Muslim rebels seized a pickup truck in rural Egypt and killed its driver, security officials said Friday. A map showing Giza, a Cairo suburb, was found in the abandoned vehicle.

Officials said they believed the hijackers were members of Gamaa al Islamiya, which has been blamed for most of the violence in a four-year effort to overthrow Egypt’s secular government.

Meanwhile, planes carrying survivors arrived in the northern Greek port city of Salonika and the capital, Athens, on Friday. Some of the wounded and the bodies of the dead followed in separate jets.