Egypt Bombing Suspect Slain

Egyptian police killed a main suspect in the Sharm el Sheik bombings in a shootout at a quarry Monday, authorities said.

A police official said that the suspect’s wife also was killed and that the couple’s 4-year-old daughter was wounded.

Police searching for Mohammed Flayfil, 30, a Bedouin also wanted in last year’s bombings in the Taba resort area farther north in the Sinai Peninsula, found evidence “that elements involved in these attacks were hiding out in a quarry in Mount Ataqaa,” near the city of Suez, the Interior Ministry said.

Its statement said officers were fired on as they approached the site.

Flayfil was being tried in absentia for the October bombings in the Taba area, which killed 34 people, and was a main suspect among 15 wanted in the Sharm el Sheik attacks of July 23.

The official death toll in last month’s attacks is 64, but hospital authorities say the figure could rise to 88.

In the Sharm el Sheik attacks, two car bombs and a bomb in a knapsack ripped through a luxury hotel, a neighborhood crowded with Egyptians and the entrance to a beach promenade.

Investigators are focusing on the possibility that homegrown Islamic militant cells in Sinai carried out the bombings and are investigating whether the cells might have had international links.

Flayfil was the brother of Suleiman Flayfil, who police say was one of the attackers in the Taba assault and who reportedly died in one of the explosions when he detonated his charges prematurely.