Two Suspects Held In Suicide Bombing

Two men arrested near the border with Afghanistan are suspected in the suicide bombing that destroyed the Egyptian embassy and killed 16 people inside, police said Wednesday.

Police haven’t officially identified the two, who were transferred Wednesday to the capital, Islamabad. But one officer said on condition of anonymity that both are Egyptians.

The men were arrested Tuesday in Peshawar, a city near the Afghanistan border, said a senior intelligence officer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.At least one had no passport or Pakistani visa and told police he had recently arrived in Pakistan from Afghanistan, the officer said.

Since the embassy was bombed on Sunday, police have detained several residents of Arab countries, but no one else was considered a suspect, police said.

Several thousand Islamic militants from Middle Eastern countries came to Pakistan during the 1980s to fight alongside Muslim insurgents in Afghanistan. After the communist government fell in 1992, several hundred stayed behind.