Explosions in Egypt

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from cnn.com

36 Dead and 150 Hurt in Egyption Blasts

By LEE KEATH

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - As many as seven explosions, including at least four car bombs, struck the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik early Saturday, hitting several hotels packed with foreign and Egyptian tourists and killing at least 36 people, witnesses and police said.

Saturday's explosions at 1:15 a.m. shook windows more than five miles away. Smoke and fire rose from Naama Bay, a main strip of beach hotels in the desert city popular with Israeli and European tourists, witnesses said.

At least four car bombs were used in the attacks, said a security official in the operations control room in Cairo monitoring the crisis. One went off in the driveway of the Ghazala Garden hotel, a 176-room four-star resort on the main strip of hotels in Naama Bay, the official said.

Another exploded in the Old Market, a few miles away, killing 17 people - believed to be Egyptians - sitting at a nearby outdoor coffee shop. Three minibuses were set ablaze, though it was not clear if they were carrying passengers, the official said.


A police official in Sharm el-Sheik said at least 36 people were killed and 150 wounded in what may have been as many as seven blasts, three in Naamah Bay and four in the Old Market.

 

[Mark_AR]

Can't people just get along...

Makes ya wonder if the saying 'The End Is Near' isn't half right...

 

[hbk409]

msn.com is reporting 45 dead

CAIRO, Egypt - As many as seven explosions, including at least four car bombs, struck Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik early Saturday, hitting several hotels packed with European and Egyptian tourists and killing at least 45 people in the deadliest attack in Egypt in nearly a decade, witnesses and police said.

Saturday's explosions at 1:15 a.m. shook windows a mile away. Smoke and fire rose from Naama Bay, a main strip of beach hotels in the desert city at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, also popular with Israeli tourists, witnesses said.

Dazed tourists milled about the darkened streets as Egyptian rescuers searched for dead and injured and ambulances sped away with victims.

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"There seemed to be a lot of bodies strewn across the road" near one cafe, British policeman Chris Reynolds, visiting from Birmingham, England, told the BBC by telephone. "It was horrendous."

Official: At least four car bombs
At least four car bombs were used in the attack, said a security official in the operations control room in Cairo monitoring the crisis. One went off in the driveway of the Ghazala Garden hotel, a 176-room four-star resort on the main strip of hotels in Naama Bay, the governor of South Sinai province, Mustafa Afifi, said.

Another exploded in the Old Market, an area a few kilometers away, killing 17 people — believed to be Egyptians — sitting at a nearby outdoor coffee shop, the control room official said. Three minibuses were set ablaze, though it was not clear if they were carrying passengers, the official said.

Another blast went off near the Meridien Hotel, said a receptionist there who declined to identify himself.

Security officials put the toll at 45 killed and around 200 wounded. The Interior Ministry put out a statement putting the toll at 31 people and 107 wounded.

The dead in the Sharm blasts included British, Russian, Dutch, Kuwaitis, Saudis, Qataris and Egyptians, a security official said.

The officials, including the one in the crisis control center, were speaking on condition of anonymity because they were giving information not yet included in the official statement.

October blasts at Sinai resorts killed 34
It was the deadliest attack in Egypt in nearly a decade. In October 2004, a series of explosions hit several hotels in the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, about 100 miles northwest along the Gulf of Aqaba coast, killing 34 people. Egyptian authorities said that attack was linked to Israeli-Palestinian violence and launched a large wave of arrests in Sinai.

President Hosni Mubarak has a residence in Sharm el-Sheik, at a resort several kilometers (miles) outside Naama Bay and often spends weeks there at a time in the winter. But during the summer, he stays at a residence in the northern city of Alexandria.



• EGYPT: Maps, facts and figures


Amal Mustafa, 28, an Egyptian who was visiting Sharm with her family, told The Associated Press that she drove by the Ghazala Garden and it was "completely burned down, destroyed."

A London police officer, Charlie Ives, who was on holiday, told BBC Television that he was in a street cafe about 50 meters away from where two explosions went off.

"It was mass hysteria really. We tried to calm people down," he said. He said the blast was so strong, "We were virtually thrown from the cafe."

Another British tourist, Fabio Basone, was in Naama Bay's Hard Rock Cafe when he heard a small explosion, then a larger one that sparked "mass panic with people running and screaming in all directions."

‘People running and screaming’
"We went outside on to the street where we were met with hundreds of people running and screaming in all directions," he told BBC. "I saw the front of a hotel had been blown away.... There were two bodies on the floor but I don't know if they were dead."

Scores of ambulances from cities in the northern Sinai and the Suez Canal cities of Suez and Ismailiya were headed to Sharm to help with casualties.

Khaled Sakran, a resident, said he saw one explosion from the Old Market. "I saw the saw the fire in the sky," he told The Associated Press. "Right after, I saw a light in the sky and heard another explosion, coming from Naama Bay."

"The blast shook my house, I can see the fire and lots of smoke," Akram al-Sherif, a Jordanian who was staying at a summer house less than a mile away, said.

Thousands of tourists are drawn to Sharm for its sun, clear blue water, and coral reefs. It also has been a meeting place where world leaders have tried to hammer out a Mideast peace agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met there in February and agreed to a cease-fire.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

 

[DarrellP]

Nuke Mecca. This guy has balls, I like his style. To hell with the apologies.

 

[korsjs]

these cowards are getting out of control.

 

[hbk409]

Nuke Mecca. This guy has balls, I like his style. To hell with the apologies.

this is my thinking as well, we cant find bin laden but know hes somewhere in afghanistan, why dont we just level the whole country? and as for the innocent, well im sorry to say this but they didnt give a rats ass about the people that died on 9/11, so personal if thats the only way to get bin laden then thats what we have to do.