Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt ? Security forces at checkpoints in the Sinai Peninsula distributed pictures of five Pakistanis as the search continued Monday for suspects in Egypt’s worst terrorist attack. Meanwhile, a senior investigator suggested that although foreigners might have played a role in the planning, the people who carried out the bombings Saturday were apparently Egyptians.

The developments added a wrinkle to an intensive investigation that has so far focused on links to bombings in October 2004 at and near the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba, near the Israeli border. A senior investigator has said the style of Saturday’s operation, its explosives and its targets bore the hallmarks of the 2004 attack, which killed 34 people at a hotel and two beaches.

The men’s pictures were distributed at some traffic stops, the senior official said. News agencies identified the men as Mohammed Anwar, 30; Rashid Ali, 26; Mohammed Aref, 26; Musaddeq Hussein, 18; and Mohammed Akhtar, 30.

The involvement of non-Egyptians, still far from clear, would recast the investigation, adding a foreign context to an attack that investigators have said appeared to be homegrown. It would suggest that the attack in Sharm el-Sheikh, a series of three bombings unleashed after 1 a.m. Saturday, drew on a far broader network.

Brig. Hossam Serafi, the chief of investigations in South Sinai, which covers Sharm el-Sheikh, cautioned against drawing conclusions from the police pursuit of the men, whom he declined to call suspects.

On Monday, a senior official said investigators believed the assailants in Sharm el-Sheikh were Egyptian.

“The execution is clear to us. Those men are close to us. Those men are Egyptians,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.