EGYPT - Feb 2 - Forces Slay Suspect In Sinai Bombings During Mountain Shootout.

The security forces clash with Islamic militants in the mountains of Sinai, killing a suspect in last year's deadly bombings of beach resorts on the peninsula, the government said. The gun battle erupted as the police were chasing militants believed to have been involved in the Oct 7 bombings at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Al Sultan, which killed 34 people, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The fighting took place in the hills near Ain Sudr, inland from the west coast town of Ras Sudr and about 185km, east of Cairo, it said. The Interior Ministry statement said the police started searching the hilly area on Jan 31 evening after receiving information that fugitives were hiding out in caves there. The ministry identified the slain suspect as Mohammad Abdel Rahman Badawi, saying he took part in the Sinai bombings and was found armed with an automatic rifle and a handgun. Witnesses said two people were killed in the shootout: a policeman and a militant. But the ministry said only that a policeman was wounded. The police were continuing to pursue other suspects on Feb 1, the ministry said. A wing of the Taba Hilton Hotel was destroyed in the bombings, which was allegedly masterminded by a Palestinian who was killed in the blasts. Nine people have been charged with the bombings, including a Palestinian. On Feb 4, the police clashed with about 500 demonstrators who were protesting the state's three-month detention of people suspected of involvement in the bombings. The clash, in which three police officers and about 10 protesters were injured, took place in the north Sinai town of El Arish, near the Israeli border. A terrorist suspect detained without trial for more than three years has been released, the British government said the AP reported from London. He was the second terror suspect to be freed this week. Home Secretary Charles Clarke said in a statement that the order to detain the man, an Egyptian identified only as C., had been revoked "with immediate effect". He did not say what had prompted the decision. Clarke said C. had been freed Jan 31 - the same day another suspect, Mahmoud Abu Rideh, a Palestinian, was granted bail by a review commission. The two men were among 11 foreigners held indefinitely without charge or trial under controversial antiterrorism legislation rushed through shortly after the 9/11 attacks. C. was detained in December 2001 on suspicion of being a leader of the group Egyptian Islamic Jihad. In October 2003, Britain's Special Immigration Appeals Commission concluded the government had "reasonable grounds" to suspect that C. had a "senior leadership role in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the United Kingdom". The government has come under increasing pressure to release the suspects held under the Antiterrorism, Crime and Security Act. The law, which allows the government to hold foreigners if there are "reasonable grounds to suspect" they are linked to terrorist groups, and if their lives would be endangered if they were deported to their home countries, has been condemned by civil libertarians and many lawyers. Guilty plea in abuse trial A former Abu Ghraib guard pleaded guilty Feb 1 to three of the five charges against him in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal, a day before he was scheduled to go to trial, the AP reported from Fort Hood, Texas. In an agreement with prosecutors, Sgt Javal Davis, 27, pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty, battery and making a false official statement to army investigators after explicit photographs from the prison were made public last spring. Davis, from Roselle, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to two other charges: conspiracy and maltreating detainees. The guilty pleas were entered after Col James Pohl, the judge, rejected efforts by Davis's lawyer to get all of the charges dismissed. Arrests over Madrid bombs Police on Feb 1 arrested a family of four Moroccans suspected of having links to the Madrid train bombings, and an arrest warrant was issued for another Moroccan who might be a Qaeda figure mentioned in a video claiming responsibility, officials said. The four - a married couple in their 40s and their two sons - were arrested in Leganes, a suburb of Madrid, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The international arrest warrant was issued for a 28-year-old Moroccan - arrested in Belgium in March, then released - who might be a Qaeda spokesman mentioned in a video in which Islamic militants claimed Osama Bin Laden's terror organization was behind the 3/11 bombings, the ministry said. In the attack, 10 backpack bombs went off on the Madrid commuter network, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,500. The Bosnian PM will submit a formal request for the release of six Bosnian citizens being held in the US military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his spokesman said Feb 1, according to an AP report from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Adnan Terzic's move came in response to a protest held in Sarajevo on Jan 31 by the six detainees' families and friends. Terzic made the decision after meeting with the detainees' relatives late Jan 31, said his spokesman, Bojan Zec Filipovic. Filipovic said: The Council of Ministers adopted the PM's proposal today, we will contact US officials and start the diplomatic procedure for the release". The six men - all Algerians with Bosnian citizenship - were arrested in October 2001 after US intelligence indicated they were planning attacks on the US and British embassies in Sarajevo and an American military base in the north-eastern city of Tuzla.