4 DENY BOMBING OF TRADE CENTER

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 26, 1993                   TAG: 9303260174
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short
4 DENY BOMBING OF TRADE CENTER
Four of the five men arrested in the World Trade Center bombing proclaimed their innocence Thursday, and, a month after the blast, federal investigators believe there may be only one suspect still loose.
"The circle is now very narrow," Jim Esposito, head of the FBI's New Jersey office, said after the fifth suspect was arrested early Thursday.
Authorities also disclosed that an explosives timing device like those in other terrorist bombings was recovered at the New Jersey home of suspect Nidal Ayyad, a chemical engineer who investigators believe has bomb-making know-how.
But at his court appearance, Ayyad insisted: "I am not guilty. I swear by all I hold dear - the Koran, my wife, child and mother - I had nothing to do with this."
The bombing killed six, injured more than 1,000 and forced evacuation of the world's second-tallest buildings.
Authorities say the motive remains unclear, though all five men arrested were born in the Middle East and at least four of them are believed to have links to a radical Muslim cleric who advocates the overthrow of Egypt's secular government.
The arrest Thursday of Bilal Alkaisi, 27, a Jordanian native living in Brooklyn, leaves only one known suspect still at large, said two federal investigators who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Keywords:
FATALITY

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB