Bombs strike resort in Egypt

From combined dispatches

CAIRO — Three car-bomb explosions struck the Red Sea resort of Sham el Sheik early today, hitting several hotels packed with European and Egyptian tourists. Officials said at least 45 persons were killed in the deadliest attack in Egypt in nearly a decade.

The explosions, in quick succession starting at 1:15 a.m., shook windows 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.

The region’s governor said many people died in two car bombs and another explosion, possibly a suitcase full of explosives. A rescue official said 136 were wounded.

“Many of the injuries are very serious and they are in critical condition,” said a doctor at Sharm el Sheik International Hospital, who asked not to be named.

Britons, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Qataris, Kuwaitis and Egyptians were among the casualties in the resort popular with divers and vacationers from Europe, police sources said.

Dazed tourists milled about the darkened streets as Egyptian rescuers searched for dead and injured.

“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 British Broadcasting Corp. by telephone. “It was horrendous.”

Charlie Ives, a London policeman on vacation after dealing with the aftermath of bombings in the British capital, said he and his wife tried to get away from the scene of a first bomb only to witness a second one four minutes later.

“The whole area was quickly covered in debris. There was a huge ball of smoke that mushroomed up, it was mass hysteria,” he told BBC World television.

Mustafa Afifi, governor of South Sinai province, said one car bomb exploded in front of the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay, the site of most of the resort’s luxury hotels.

Egyptian television quoted witnesses as saying the hotel’s entire front was destroyed, and rescue officials said they feared people were still trapped in the debris.

Another blast went off near the Movenpick Hotel. A taxi line also was targeted, witnesses said.

One more explosion hit the Old Market in the town of Sharm el Sheik, about four miles from that hotel.

The rescue official, who declined to be named, said many wounded were Egyptian workers gathered at a cafe in the market. Seventeen of the dead were burned beyond recognition. Three minibuses were set ablaze at the market. It was not clear if they were carrying passengers, the official said.

Although many tourists could have been asleep when the explosions struck, the resort’s sidewalk cafes, seafront restaurants and bazaars are usually packed with locals and tourists well into the late summer nights.

President Hosni Mubarak has a vacation villa in the Golf Hotel, close to the Movenpick.

Sharm el Sheik 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.

Kurtis Cooper, a State Department spokesman, said the United States condemned the attacks and offered assistance to the Egyptian government.

“There can be no excuse for the targeting of innocent civilians,” Mr. Cooper said in Washington.

“What happened early this morning is rejected by all people. These criminal gangs will not be able to prevent people from traveling and moving,” Egyptian Tourism Minister Ahmed el-Maghrabi told Egyptian television.

“There is no doubt that these incidents will have an effect in the short term [on tourism],” he added.

Tourists have been targeted in Egypt in earlier attacks.

Three tourists were killed and others wounded in two bombings in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in April.

In October, 34 persons were killed by car and truck bombs at resorts popular with Israelis, mostly at the Taba Hilton on the Israeli border. Those attacks were farther north, on the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula.

Tourism is a major source of revenue and employment in Egypt, which needs to create about 650,000 jobs a year for its youthful population. Some analysts say Egypt attracted extra visitors this year after many avoided tsunami-hit Asia.