Egyptian authorities launched a manhunt after five people, who were found out to have entered Egypt on forged passports to carry out terror operations in resorts in south Sinai peninsula, local paper reported on Saturday.

Enforcement papers have been dispatched to the area and the names of the presumed terrorists were distributed among checkpoints and ambushes, said top-selling local daily al-Ahram.

The five suspects, named as Abdel Baqi Mohamed Bassiouni, Islam Foad Kamel, Isamail Eid Ismail, Hassan Bioumi Ashraf and Sherif Motazddin Mohamed, were found out by the police to have entered Egypt to carry out terror operations in Sharm el-Sheikh and other resorts in south Sinai peninsula.

Egyptian Interior Minister Habib Ibrahim el-Adli has sent his assistant for security affairs to south Sinai to follow up security measures.

Egypt's manhunt came after Israel's Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a statement on Tuesday, warning all Israelis visiting Sinai peninsula to leave the region immediately.

The statement said that the threat of kidnapping Israelis on the Sinai beaches became extremely severe and concrete in recent days, adding that the security condition of Israeli tourists either visiting or staying in Egypt, including Sinai, had become really worrying.

On Wednesday, the Australian government also issued a warning over the threat of imminent militant attacks in Sinai Peninsula.

South Sinai has world-class resorts like Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab and Taba, which attract nearly half of the foreign tourists visiting Egypt. Yet these resorts have been major targets of terror attacks in recent years.

On April 24 this year, a triple explosion hit Dahab, killing some 19 people and injured about 83 others.

On July 23, 2005, at least 60 people were killed and over 200 others wounded in three bomb explosions in Sharm el-Sheikh.

On Oct. 7 of 2004, a series of explosions rocked Taba, killing 34 people and injuring over 100 others.

Source: Xinhua