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Egyptian police round up suspects after weekend terrorism

The Egyptian police looked for clues Sunday and struggled to identify dozens of the 88 people killed in three coordinated bomb blasts that had rocked this Red Sea resort and sent foreign tourists scrambling to catch flights home.

More than 70 people have been detained in Sharm el Sheik and elsewhere on the Sinai Peninsula for questioning over the explosions that took place early Saturday. But none have been accused of involvement in Egypt`s deadliest terror attack, said security officials, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the inquiry.

The attacks began shortly after 1 a.m. on Saturday and ripped through an upscale hotel, a market and a parking lot with a synchronized series of blasts that had occurred about five minutes apart, witnesses and the authorities said.

Several hours after the bombings, an extremist group claimed responsibility on an Islamic Web site. The group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades of Al Qaeda in Syria and Egypt, also claimed to have carried out a similar series of bombings that killed 34 people last October at and near Taba, a resort town. Within hours, a second group, which identified itself as the Holy Warriors of Egypt, claimed responsibility in a fax to newspapers and gave the names of five people it identified as the bombers. Neither claim could be verified