EGYPT: Four Egyptians Killed In Attack On Sinai Hotel

Four people,a judge, a prosecutor, and two security personnel -- were killed on Tuesday and 14 were injured in North Sinai's restive city of Al-Arish during attacks on a hotel where judges supervising the ongoing parliamentary polls were residing.

The ISIS-affiliated militant group in North Sinai, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The same group said earlier it had brought down the Russian airliner that killed all 224 on board over Sinai last month.

A suicide bomber was driving a car bomb into the hotel when security forces opened fire on him, causing the car to explode away from the Swiss Inn Hotel and the bomber to die, the military said in a statement.

Another attacker wearing an explosive belt later snuck into the hotel's kitchen and blew himself up, while a gunman went up to one of the hotel rooms and opened fire, killing a judge.

"One judge was among those killed and two civilians are among the injured. They were treated in Al-Arish public hospital, while 12 were transferred to a nearby military hospital," said Khaled Megahed, the health ministry spokesperson.

The Egyptian justice ministry later announced that prosecutor Amr Mostafa is among those who were killed. The army statement confirmed the attacks killed at least two police conscripts and injured other security forces.

Two suicide bombers and a gunman killed four people, including a judge, in an assault on Tuesday on a north Sinai hotel hosting judges overseeing Egypt's parliamentary polls, the government said.

The interior ministry said a judge, two policemen and a civilian were killed in the blasts at the Swiss Inn hotel in the town of El-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai where militants are waging an insurgency.

The first blast was triggered by a suicide car bomber followed by a militant who set off an explosive vest, the ministry said in a statement.

A third attacker sneaked inside a hotel room and shot dead the judge, the military said in a statement.

It said both bombers set off their explosives when police confronted them and traded shots with the attacker wearing the explosives vest.

Two judges, eight officers and conscripts and two civilians were wounded in the blasts, the interior ministry said. The military said 12 people had been wounded, including soldiers and policemen.

State television aired footage of shattered hotel windows and a charred limb, and car parts flung into a hotel terrace by the blast.

Egypt held its second round of parliamentary elections on Sunday and Monday, its first legislative vote since the military overthrew elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Morsi's ouster unleashed a deadly police crackdown on his followers, overseen by former military strongman Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

Some Sinai militants have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.

They have also claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian passenger plane after it left the south Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on 31 October, killing all 224 people on board.

Unlike the north of the peninsula, which has become a militant stronghold and is off limits to tourists, south Sinai is dotted with heavily secured Red Sea resorts.

"This brutal incident is a failed, desperate attempt to hinder the state," said army spokesman Mohamed Samir in the statement. "We emphasise that this incident will strengthen the persistence and determination of police and the armed forces to root out terrorism in North Sinai."

Ambulances rushed to the scene and gunshots could be heard following the explosion. A main coastal highway in the city has been shut down following the attack.

In a statement circulated by its supporters on Twitter, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis said the attack was revenge for the imprisonment of female Muslims by the "apostate" Egyptian army.

"A brother hit with his car bomb a security force guarding the Swiss Inn Hotel where 50 judges were staying only to be followed by a lion who broke into the judges' headquarters with his automatic weapon then blew up his explosive belt among them."

For years, Egypt has been fighting in North Sinai an Islamist militant insurgency, which spiked in 2013 following Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster.

Over the past two years, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for a number of attacks, some of which targeted judges in Al-Arish.

Islamist militants, who have primarily targeted security forces since the removal of Morsi, have in recent months targeted several judges amid the conviction of many Morsi supporters in terror-related cases.

Last June, Egypt's top prosecutor Hisham Barakat died from injuries sustained in a Cairo bomb attack.

In March, a small bomb was left in front of the house of judge Fathi Bayoumi, who investigated the corruption charges against Mubarak-era interior minister Habib El-Adly. The words "a gift for El-Adly's acquittal" were scribbled on a wall near the attack.

Two months earlier, a bomb attack targeting judge Khaled Mahgoub, who is representing the general prosecution in Morsi's jailbreak trial, caused damage to the windows and walls of his house.

The parliamentary elections, the second stage of which took place Sunday and Monday, were not marred by violence. Judges are currently supervising the counting of the votes.

Run-offs are due on December 1 and 2.

THAILAND: Bomb Suspect Arrested

Police officers joke with a key suspect in last month's Bangkok bombing, yellow shirt, identified by Thai police as Yusufu Mierili, also as Yusufu Mieraili, traveling on a Chinese passport, but his nationality remains unconfirmed, around a central Bangkok shopping center during a reenactment for the Aug. 17 bombing at Bangkok's popular Erawan Shrine that left 20 people dead and more than 120 injured.

Police said Wednesday a key suspect in last month's deadly Bangkok blast has admitted he handed a backpack containing a bomb to a man in a yellow shirt who was later seen leaving a similar bag at a downtown shrine just before the blast occurred.

The account offered the first possible reconstruction of events leading to the Aug. 17 attack at Erawan Shrine, an unprecedented act of violence in the Thai capital that left 20 people dead and more than 120 injured. Authorities say they still don't know the motive but are also reluctant to call the blast an act of terrorism, which would harm Thailand's image as a tourist destination.

After an initial slow start, police have arrested two foreigners, raided two apartments on the outskirts of Bangkok where they confiscated bomb-making materials, and say they are looking for 10 other suspects. Several Turkish and Chinese links to the blast have boosted a theory that the bombing was to avenge Thailand's forced repatriation of more than 100 ethnic Uighurs to China in July. Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs) are related to Turks, and Turkey is home to a large Uighur community.

The Erawan Shrine is especially popular with Chinese tourists, feeding the idea that it could be a target for people who believe the Uighurs are oppressed by China's government.

One of the men in custody, identified as Yusufu Mierili, was arrested Sept. 1 near the Thai-Cambodia border carrying a Chinese passport and has confessed to playing a key role in the attack, police said. The passport indicated he was from China's western region of Xinjiang, home to the Turkic-speaking Uighurs. His DNA and fingerprints were found in the two apartments police raided, including on a container of gunpowder in one of the apartments.

On Tuesday, police took Mierili back to the apartments and also to a chemical supply shop where he said he bought "four substances" used to make the bomb, national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said Wednesday. He declined to say what the materials were or if Mierili is believed to have made the bomb himself. He said the shop owner remembered Mierili as a customer.

A second day of re-enactments continued Wednesday, when police and armed commandoes led Mierili in handcuffs and body armor to Bangkok's main train station and then to the site of the blast at Erawan Shrine, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.

Public reenactments in front of the media are a common part of Thai criminal investigations, although they have been criticized for implying a suspect's guilt before a trial.

Prawut described Mierili as "cooperative," and during Wednesday's reenactment he could be seen pointing things out to police and at times laughing with them. The laughter occurred for just a brief period and reporters were kept too far away to hear what prompted it.

Mierili told police that on the day of the attack, he picked up the backpack from one of the apartments in the Bangkok district of Nong Chok and then took a three-wheeled tuk-tuk taxi to Hua Lamphong train station, Prawut said.

"Yusufu said the backpack that he carried was heavy and it was a bomb," Prawut said.

The suspect said he received instructions from "someone" on WhatsApp, a cellphone messaging application, telling him to deposit the backpack at a bench outside the station and wait for another person who would pick it up and leave him another backpack in return, Prawut said.

"This place is where he met with the yellow-shirt man to exchange backpacks," Prawut told reporters outside the station. He said Mierili told police he "picked up the backpack that the yellow-shirted man left for him, and walked away."

The yellow-shirted man is believed to be the bomber, and police say they think he fled the country. He was seen in surveillance camera video placing a large, black backpack at the shrine and leaving minutes before the blast occurred.

After the train station hand-off the two men went their separate ways to Erawan Shrine, where Mierili said he was told to take pictures during the blast, Prawut said.

He said Mierili showed police Wednesday where he stood to watch the explosion — in a plaza in front of Central World, a popular shopping mall.

Mierili — who police have also identified as Yusufu Mieraili — faces charges of conspiracy to possess unauthorized explosives.

Another suspect, who was arrested Aug. 29 at one of the two apartments, possessed a fake Turkish passport when he was detained, police say. They have identified him as Adem Karadak.

Police have said much of the attack remains a mystery to them and have asked for patience, saying the investigation is complicated.

"This is a very difficult case," Prawut said Wednesday. "We don't know who they are, we don't know what nationality. Even when Thais commit crimes sometimes we can't find them. Give us some time."