Blasts Kill at Least 22 in Egyptian Resort

Officials said a Russian and a Swiss national were among the victims of the near simultaneous bombings, the third such attack to hit resorts on the Sinai peninsula in 18 months.

"Around 7 pm (1700 UTC), we heard three explosions close to the seafront alongside a supermarket in the centre of Dahab," French tourist Frederic Mingeon told AFP from the town. "There was a plume of smoke and people started running and screaming."

The interior ministry said the blasts ripped through the Ghazala supermarket and the Nelson and Aladdin restaurants in central Dahab, which lies on the southeast of the peninsula about 530 kilometers (330 miles) by road from Cairo.

"We have 10 complete bodies and body parts for 12 other people," doctor Said Issa, the head of medical emergencies for the South Sinai governorate, told reporters.

Egyptian security sources said at least four foreigners were killed in the attacks and Israeli army radio said three Israelis were among the wounded.

State television said the blasts appeared to have been the result of remote-controlled bombs, not suicide bombers. No one immediately claimed credit for the attacks, which came one day after a new audiotape of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden surfaced accusing the "crusaders" of the West of waging war against Islam, referring to the conflict in Darfur and the isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Medical staff at Dahab hospital were in the process of identifying more of the victims before sending them to the nearest morgue in Sharm el-Sheikh at the tip of the Sinai.

"There was blood everywhere but the victims were evacuated very quickly," said Cecile Casey, a young French tourist who was spending a few days in Dahab.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak pledged that the perpetrators of the attacks would be punished, while world leaders united in condemning the bombings, with US President George W. Bush branding them a "heinous act."

Israeli Prime Minister-Designate Ehud Olmert also sent his condolences to Mubarak and his office said the two leaders discussed "the need for cooperation between the two countries in the fight against international terrorism."

Popular tourist spot

Dahab, which means gold in Arabic, is popular with Western backpackers and budget Israeli tourists. It was also packed with Egyptians enjoying a public holiday. It is renowned for its diving, snorkeling and windsurfing.

The bombings struck on Sham el-Nessim, a traditional holiday which marks the beginning of spring, and a day before Sinai Liberation Day, which celebrates Israel's withdrawal from the peninsula in 1982.

Belgian tourist Quentin d'Aspremont told AFP the blasts "took place at very short intervals, in the busiest part of town. The street was littered with debris and I could see pools of blood."

The streets of Dahab were immediately sealed off by police. Egyptian security sources said the border with Israel, which lies only around 145 kilometers north of Dahab, was closed to prevent the attackers from fleeing.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz offered to send army rescue teams and doctors, while hundreds of Israeli tourists were rushing home after the blasts. A state of alert was declared at the main hospital in the Israeli border town of Eilat to handle any casualties sent for treatment there and to free up doctors for dispatch to the scene.

Repeated targets

The resorts of Egypt's south Sinai peninsula have been repeatedly hit by Islamic militants.

Multiple bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh at the tip of the Sinai killed some 70 people in July 2005, the deadliest to have hit Egypt since a major wave of Islamist terrorist attacks in the mid-1990s. At least 34 people were killed in several simultaneous attacks in and around the resort of Taba further up the Red Sea coast in October 2004.

Four groups claimed the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, including Al-Tawhid wal Jihad, an Islamist movement which said the attacks were revenge for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and out of allegiance to bin Laden.

In April last year, two French tourists and an American were also killed and some 20 people wounded in a bomb attack in the Al-Azhar area of the Egyptian capital. Seven people were wounded in an attack later the same month in Cairo's Abdel Moneim Riad Square, and two women assailants were killed in a failed attack on a tourist bus.