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Egypt blast at sanai kills 23 { March 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a1OrlEgdaGHQ&refer=top_world_newshttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a1OrlEgdaGHQ&refer=top_world_news
Egypt Blasts at Sinai Resort Kill 23, Wound 87 (Update3)
April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Explosions in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Dahab killed at least 23 people yesterday and injured as many as 87. An Egyptian official said suicide bombers may have caused the blast.
Twenty Egyptians and three foreigners, including a German boy, were killed, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Health Minister Hatem El-Gebaly put the number of injured at 87 - - 58 Egyptians and 29 foreigners. Nationals of Australia, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. are among the injured, state-run television and MENA news service reported.
Security services found unidentified body parts on the scene, suggesting that suicide bombers may have caused the blast, the governor of the south Sinai province, Mohamed Hani Metwali, said on television.
The attack, the third on the Sinai peninsula since October 2004, caused concern about a drop in the revenue of tourism, Egypt's largest foreign currency earner, with $6.4 billion in revenue last year, or 7 percent of gross domestic product.
``There were people were lying in the rubble crying and shouting for help,'' said Magnus Tersson, a 28-year-old diving instructor from Sweden. ``I ran back to the shop to get a first- aid kit and helped some until the ambulance came. It's horrible and it's going to ruin the business.''
Seafront Hit
The blasts happened at the Mazbat area, near the seafront, at about 7:15 p.m. (17:15 GMT), when it was busy with tourists coming back from trips to the desert, he said. The explosions damaged restaurants and souvenir shops, filling the area with shreds of glass, rubble and bloody footprints, witnesses said.
The Sinai abuts Israel and is popular with Israeli tourists. At least 64 people died in July in coordinated bombings at hotels in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, south of Dahab. Bombings in and around Taba in October 2004 killed 34 people, including Israelis.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack, the bombings came a day after the broadcast of an audio message attributed to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that threatened the U.S. and other Western countries. He said the citizens of the U.S. and Western nations bear responsibility for the actions of their governments in Muslim nations including Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Bin Laden Link
The bombings were linked to the bin Laden tape, Sky News reported, citing police sources.
Egypt is a major U.S. ally in the Arab world and a regular mediator between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Dahab is located on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula, on the Gulf of Aqaba. The governor of the province, Metwali, told the Egyptian news agency that all roads and access to Dahab and cities in the area were sealed off as authorities hunted for suspects. Egypt also beefed up security on the border with Israel to prevent them from fleeing, he said.
Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed his country's condolences to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a telephone call yesterday. Messages to Mubarak condemning the attacks came from across the world, including the governments of Australia, France, the U.S. and the U.K, MENA said.
The Palestinian government, led by the Islamist group Hamas, condemned the attacks in Dahab as ``showing contempt for religion and harming Arab interests.''
Forces of Terrorism
Egypt ``is determined to fight the forces of terrorism that are threatening the sons of the nation and their livelihood, and seek to harm the nation's security and stability,'' Mubarak said in a statement carried by the state-run news service.
The attack took place during Shem el-Nessim, a traditional one-day national holiday celebrating the start of spring after Coptic Orthodox Easter. The previous attacks on the Sinai also happened during holidays.
Government spokesman Magdy Rady denied that security on those days were lax, allowing the perpetrators to carry out the attacks, and said the authorities didn't receive any threats. The nation is celebrating today the Sinai Liberation Day that marks the return, 24 years ago, of the peninsula to Egyptian sovereignty after it was occupied by Israel in 1967.
In the previous audiotape attributed to bin Laden, aired Jan. 19 by al-Jazeera, the al-Qaeda leader threatened new strikes against the U.S., while offering a ``long-term truce'' linked to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. rejected the offer.
Impact on Tourism
``It is too early to assess the impact of the attacks on tourism,'' said Ben Faulks, a London-based analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultants. ``If it's the work of amateurs, not linked to international terror, it could have greater impact, it means that it could happen more frequently.''
The authorities should avoid punishing the population of the area for the latest bombing, in order not to fuel the resentment created by the harsh treatment they endured after the attacks in Taba, he said.
In Dahab, activity went back to nearly normal the morning after the attacks, except for the bombed areas that were sealed off. People were swimming and wind-surfing, a Bloomberg journalist reported.
``People know that these attacks can happen anywhere in the world,'' said Raafat Shukri, a 24-year old receptionist at the 16-room Monica Hotel that hosts mostly tourists from Italy.
Italians were advised against traveling to Dahab. Viaggiaresicuri.it, a Web site partly run by the Italian Foreign Ministry, posted a statement saying ``there is a risk of terrorist attacks in the country, especially by fundamentalist and particularly against Westerners.''
About two dozen people, mostly Egyptian workers and some tourists and including Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, demonstrated near the location of the bombings today, shouting ``no to terror,'' and ``we love tourists.''
Last Updated: April 25, 2006 07:15 EDT
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