3 blasts rock Egypt resort, at least 22 killed

Three explosions rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab at the height of the tourist season Monday night, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 150 at just one hotel, according to the doctor who runs the Sinai peninsula rescue squad.

Dr. Said Essa said he was headed to the scene of the blasts and that his casualty figures were for victims at the el-Khaleeg Hotel only. He said there were casualties from the other explosions but he had no details.

Al-Jazeera television said one of the blasts hit a restaurant, and authorities said more than 20 ambulances and police cars were rushing to the el-Masbat section of the city.

Terrorist attacks have killed nearly 100 people at several tourist resorts of Egypt’s Sinai region in the past two years.

Bombings in the resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, near the Israeli border, killed 34 people in October 2004. Last July, suicide attackers in the resort of Sharm el-Sheik killed at least 64 people, mainly tourists.

The Egyptian government has said the militants who carried out the bombings were locals without international connections, but other security agencies have said they suspect al-Qaeda.

This is high tourist season in the region, and hotels all along the Egyptian coasts could be expected to be at near capacity, mainly with Europeans, Israelis and expatriates living in Egypt.

In Israel, the country’s rescue service said it had raised the alert level. Israeli Channel 10 TV reported that Israel had closed the border crossing at Taba, preventing vehicles from entering Sinai. It said a stream of Israeli vehicles were leaving Sinai.

Many Israelis travel to the Sinai for beach holidays.

Israel’s ambassador in Cairo, Shalom Cohen, told Channel 10 there were three explosions — in a hotel, a police station and a marketplace.

“We don’t know of Israelis” who were hurt, he said, though some Israelis were known to be in Dahab.

Cohen said the best thing Israeli tourists in Sinai could do now would be to “go home.”

He said there have been repeated warnings from the Israeli government against visiting the Sinai Desert, where Israelis have been targeted in attacks in the past.

“Unfortunately, the warnings came true,” he said.

The Israeli rescue service, Magen David Adom, offered help through the International Red Cross and the Egyptian Red Crescent but has not received a reply, the service said in a statement.

It said about 20 ambulances were standing by at the Taba crossing between Israel and Egypt if needed.

Dahab is located on the Gulf of Aqaba on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula and is about 65 miles south of Taba, near the border at the southern tip of Israel. Dahab is 200 miles southeast of Cairo.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press