25 Held in Bombings at Resort in Egypt

Police have detained at least 25 men in the mountains around Sharm el Sheik in connection with Saturday’s bombings at the Red Sea resort, security officials said Thursday.

Among the suspects is an Egyptian bureaucrat originally from the Nile Delta province of Minufiya who worked in a government office in Sharm el Sheik and went into hiding immediately after the string of explosions, the two officials said. They declined to be identified because the release of the information was not authorized.

No details were available on what role police think the arrested men may have played in the attacks.

Police are also searching for a green pickup truck in the northern Sinai Peninsula that may have been the getaway vehicle for some of the attackers, who detonated two car bombs and a third device, leveling the lobby of a luxury hotel and ripping through a beach promenade and a neighborhood of Egyptian workers.

Police have also named at least 15 people, including Bedouin tribesmen and other Egyptians, they suspect of playing a role in the Sharm el Sheik blasts and attacks in October on two other Sinai resorts that killed 34 people.

Investigators have been looking for possible links between the Sharm el Sheik bombings and the October attacks in Taba and Ras Shitan. They identified an Egyptian man with links to Islamic militants as a suspected suicide bomber in the attack last weekend. He went into hiding after the Taba bombings.

Investigators have said they are looking into international links, including funding for possible militant cells in the Sinai.

At least 300 other people have been detained for questioning in the Sharm el Sheik attacks, but they are not believed to have played a role.

Authorities were still trying to determine the death toll from the blasts. The Health Ministry has said 64 people have been confirmed dead. Hospital officials have said they believe 88 were killed.

Saeed Abdel Fattah, director of the hospital where victims were taken, said that the confirmed dead included 38 Egyptians, five Italians, four Turks, an American and a Czech. At least 15 people are unidentified.