Two Sinai peacekeepers hurt in blast
An explosion hit a vehicle of the Multinational Force and Observers today, wounding two peacekeepers near Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian security officials said two Canadian women serving in the MFO were wounded, but the Interior Ministry said there were no casualties.
MFO spokesman Ian Baxendell said two force members were “very lightly injured,” but he did not know their names, gender or nationality. Earlier he had said he was unaware of any casualties.
“I am aware that an MFO vehicle was damaged, I’m unaware of how it was damaged,” Baxendell said in Cairo. He said it occurred on a road about two miles from an MFO base.
Local security officials said the explosion at about 8am badly damaged the vehicle in which the MFO members were leaving the airport where they were based, 10 miles from Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip.
Senior Egyptian security officials in Cairo said the two wounded were Canadian women sergeants. Canada has about 30 troops in the MFO. The spokesman for the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Ulrich Shannon, said he could not confirm any casualties.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. Egyptian security officials at the scene said it was caused either by a land mine or a bomb. But it was so powerful that it was heard in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority officials said.
The Interior Ministry issued a statement saying a “limited explosion” went off, causing no casualties, as an MFO patrol passed on the main highway in el-Goura district about a mile from the force’s base.
MFO spokesman Baxendell said it was first time force personnel had been wounded “for many years,” but he refused to describe it as an attack on the force.
“You cannot call it an attack because it was on a public highway and we’re not certain of how it occurred,” Baxendell said.
The Multinational Force and Observers was created to help implement the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. It comprises 1,800 troops from 11 nations, including the US, Canada, several European states and Australia and New Zealand. They act as a peace monitoring force in the Sinai peninsula – the battlefield of three Arab-Israeli wars between 1956 and 1973.
Egypt is due to deploy forces to secure its Gaza border after Israel’s withdrawal of Jewish settlers and troops from the Strip, which is taking place this week.
