Police arrest 10 over Dahab bombings

It was the third terror strike on a Sinai resort in less than two years and, once again, it happened as Egyptians were enjoying a national holiday.

It also seemed to open a rift between hardline al Qaida sympathisers and other radical Muslim groups, like Hamas, which immediately moved to condemn the bombing.

Security police said they had detained for questioning 10 people – three of whom had arrived in Dahab a day before the attack and tried to leave the resort 15 minutes after the explosions in a car with false number plates.

The police said they did not yet know if the explosions – timed for maximum destruction in a promenade of bars, restaurants and shops in the early evening - were caused by suicide bombers or bombs on timers.

“The theory is not clear yet,” Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said.

The blasts were so powerful that police divers worked this morning to retrieve body parts from the shallow waters of the sea, as workers swept shards of glass from the streets. At one spot near the beach, two black sandals lay in a pool of blood on a wooden footbridge.

Nearby, outside the supermarket where one blast occurred, a tiny shoe covered in blood lay on top of a baby stroller. Witnesses said the stroller belonged to foreign twin infants who they said looked European.

One twin was inside the shop with the mother when the blast occurred, and the other outside in the stroller, said Mohammed Emad, 16, who sells spices at the market and whose hand was hurt by flying glass.

The boy said he went with the mother and twins to hospital, where one of the twins died and the mother remained severely injured. “I pushed the stroller away out of the doorway after the blast,” he said.

Another witness said tourists did not know where to run as the blasts kept coming.

“I heard the first bomb, I started running. When I heard the second one, we were still running,” said Johanna Sarjas, a journalist from Finland who was on holiday.

“It was chaotic because we didn’t know in which direction to run. You didn’t know where the next bomb would come from,” she said.

Interior Minister Habib el-Adly put the death toll at 23, including 20 Egyptians and three foreigners. But Sinai hospital officials said Tuesday that an Egyptian man had died of his wounds, bringing the toll to 24.

Cabinet spokesman Rady said later that 18 people had died – 12 Egyptians and six foreigners. The discrepancy in tolls could not be explained.

Dr. Hazem Ahmed of Sharm el-Sheik Hospital said 85 people were wounded – a figure that Rady confirmed. His hospital had admitted 10 foreign patients. Two of the injured were British nationals.

One of the dead was a German child, according to the Egyptian Interior Ministry and the German Foreign Ministry. Police said one Russian and one Swiss were also killed, but el-Adly would not confirm those nationalities.

At least three Israelis also were hurt in the attack, which sent a steady stream of cars back to Israel some 65 miles to the north.

Some tourists in Dahab said they were not deterred.

A Frenchwoman who arrived hours before the blasts, Aurore Trepo, 27, said she was shocked by the attack. “I don’t want this to change my holiday plan. My mom wants us to go back to France, but I think we will stay.”

Her boyfriend, Matthiew Leuwerf, 29, concurred, saying: “I don’t want to change my plans because of terrorists.”

The attacks – the third terror strike at a Sinai resort in less than two years - came just one day after al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had urged Muslims to support al Qaida in what he called a war against Islam.

But many Arabs have denounced al Qaida-linked groups for attacking Arabs and Muslims, and the latest attacks seemed to widen a growing rift between al-Qaida sympathisers and other radical Muslim groups – like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Both Hamas and the Brotherhood moved quickly to condemn the attacks.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, whose party refused to condemn last week’s bombing in Tel Aviv that killed nine people, told reporters in Gaza: “It is a direct assault against the national security in Egypt.”

Egyptian officials have said local people were behind the previous bombings in the Sinai, but outside security experts say Sinai’s extremists seem either al Qaida linked or at least aligned with its views.

The Dahab attack – clearly targeted at both Coptic Christian Egyptians celebrating a religious holiday and Muslim Egyptians on national holiday, along with Israelis and foreign tourists – seemed consistent with the aims of hardline al Qaida sympathisers, often called Salafists.

In contrast, groups like Hamas have been careful to say that their attacks are aimed only against Israel, and are not part of a worldwide radical Islamic jihad.

Stephen Hadley, US President George Bush’s national security adviser, speaking on CBS’ Early Show, said it was not yet clear who was behind the attack but noted most victims were Muslims and said that negated any idea there was a war between the West and Islam.

“It’s the terrorists, really, against those who are in favour of peace and democracy,” Hadley said.

In Israel, Brigadier General Elkana Har Nof of the prime minister’s counter-terrorism department told state radio that the Sinai resorts were likely to be attacked again because they are a key link in Egypt’s economy.

“The coast combines all the elements that are a target, especially for global jihad,” Nof said.

The attacks were expected to have an immediate impact on Egyptian tourism, which is the country’s No. 1 source of foreign exchange – bringing in 6.1 billion US dollars in 2004. The Sinai resorts account for about 25% of Egypt’s hotel beds.

However, Egypt recovered quickly from last July’s attacks in Sharm el-Sheik, where suicide bombers killed 64 people, mainly tourists. Within four weeks, major hotels in Sharm were reporting occupancies of 70%.

The earlier bombings in the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan killed 34 people in October 2004, a day before a holiday marking the start of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Yesterday, Sinai hotels were filled with foreigners and Egyptians celebrating the long Coptic Christian Easter weekend that coincided this year with Shem al-Nessim, an ancient holiday marking the first day of spring. The attacks also came a day before another Egyptian national holiday.

El-Adly said it wasn’t immediately clear if the attack could have been carried out by a group as organised as those who detonated the earlier bombs.

“The devices used were not of the types which would have caused big destruction,” he said.

Dahab, which means “gold” in Arabic, was for years a popular, low-key haven for young Western and Israeli backpackers drawn by prime scuba diving and cheap hotels. In recent years, a number of more upscale hotels have been built, including a five-star Hilton resort.

The bombings hit the town at 7.15pm local time when the streets were jammed with tourists strolling, shopping or looking for a restaurant or bar for evening festivities by the tranquil waters of the Gulf of Aqaba.

The first bomb exploded outside a seaside restaurant called Al Capone, one of the area’s most popular spots. The second bomb went off outside the supermarket and the Mona Lisa jewellery store. The third detonated at the entrance of a bridge where tourists take strolls next to the sea.

Mohammed Gadallah, who works at a hotel coffee shop near the bridge bomb, said he initially thought a power cable had blown up. After the explosion, he ran outside and carried a Russian boy to safety.

“The scene out there was horrific,” the 27-year-old said.

“Blood was everywhere. People’s limbs were blown off. I don’t know who could have done this – they are people who know no religion and have no conscience.”

Hani Sadeq, 24, who worked at the Mona Lisa store, said: “We ran toward the scene and we found people, our friends, lying on the ground. some were already dead. Some were alive, with arms broken. We took them to the hospital.”

Looking up at a shrapnel-scarred hotel, he added: “Dahab is dead now.”