Missing students’ families suspect they sought work

Fri., Aug. 11, 2006

Maggie Michael Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt – Anxious families of some of 11 Egyptians who failed to show up for studies at Montana State University said Thursday that the students may have decided to try to look for work and live in the United States.

Six of the 11 are now in custody after three additional students were arrested Thursday, the FBI said.

El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed Ibrahim, 20, and Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali El Bahnasawi, 20, were arrested at a residence in Dundalk, Md., outside Baltimore, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Chicago police detained Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou El Ela, 22, at O’Hare International Airport as he was attempting to book a flight to Montana, the FBI said. Immigration agents later took El Ela into custody.

Three students were arrested Wednesday. The other five Egyptians still are being sought.

The students’ failure to show up for their month-long study program at Montana State University prompted a police hunt for the 11, though U.S. authorities said they had no indication there was a terrorism threat from any of the Egyptians.

The students were among a group of 17 from Mansoura University, located in Egypt’s northern Nile Delta. The other six students from the group reported for the program on English Language and U.S. History in Bozeman.

Egyptian security officials said they believe the 11 students, who had no criminal records or known ties to Islamic militants, decided to abandon their studies and seek work in the U.S.

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