From: mtaghavi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Amir Taghavi)
Subject: Mubarak warns militants, advises Iran not to interfere
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 20:49:20 GMT


	CAIRO, Egypt (UPI) -- More than 1,100 heavily armed Egyptian police
carrying out a massive manhunt found a second Muslim militant suspected
of a shooting attack on a German tourist bus, authorities reported
Saturday.
	The attack Thursday in southern Egypt, the latest in a series of
assaults by Islamic groups apparently aimed at disrupting Egypt's
tourism industry and embarrassing the government, wounded five Germans
and two Egyptians.
	Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Saturday warned Muslim
militants against their attempts to disrupt tourism, saying such a
disruption would be an economic disaster for the country. He also issued
a warning to Iran, which has been accused of backing the militants.
	After this week's attack, the Egyptian government sent out more than
1,100 police officers equipped with armored vehicles and personnel
carriers. Friday night the searchers rounded up about 200 young men
around the village of El Hogairaat, 420 miles south of Cairo.
	The search was centered around the hometown of Bastawi Abdel Meguid,
the first suspect arrested shortly after the attack in Qena, and led
Friday night to the arrest of a second suspect, Abdel Hadi Sagheer,
police said.
	Police also reported recovering an automatic rifle believed used in
the attack, which slightly wounded five people and left one German woman
and the Egyptian driver hospitalized in Cairo in stable condition.
	Much of the search was said to have focused on sugarcane fields that
dominate southern Egypt and provide hiding places for fleeing militants
and criminals.
	Meguid told investigators the leader of the military wing of the
banned militant Muslim Jihad group in Qena paid him $1,500 to take part
in the attack, police said.
	Police said they seized a vehicle and an automatic rifle believed
used in the attack on the bus, which carried 17 German tourists and
their Egyptian tour guide and driver.
	Mubarak addressed the nation Saturday through state-run media to ask
Egyptians to close ranks against terrorist attempts to undermine
tourism.
	``The result (of this disruption) would be a disaster for the entire
nation,'' Mubarak said in the address he delivered at the opening
session of the People's Assembly or parliament.
	Tourism is Egypt's chief foreign currency earner and employs more
than a million Egyptians. The daily financial newspaper Al Alam Al Youm
Saturday estimated the country incurred $150 million in lost revenues
from tourism because of the attacks.
	The Egyptian leader warned there would be no investment, development
and new job opportunities in the country ``if we allow terrorism to spit
out its venom'' into the various aspects of life.
	Mubarak said the militants distort Egypt's values and traditions
regarding hospitality and securing the safety of ``foreign guests.''
	He also warned Iran not to interfer in the internal affairs of Arab
and Islamic countries. Mubarak and other senior Egyptian officials have
recently been accusing Tehran of financing, arming and training Egyptian
Muslim militants.
	He also said if Iran wanted to prove its goodwill it ``must abandon
attempts to exercise hegemony over the (Persian) Gulf area.''
	Mubarak warned Iran the Arab Gulf states cannot be intimidated and
they had enough outside support, particularly from Egypt.


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