At least 23 dead in Egypt explosions

updated 7:56 a.m. ET April 25, 2006

CAIRO, Egypt - The beachfront promenade along the Gulf of Aqaba was jammed with tourists strolling, shopping or looking for a restaurant or bar for the evening.

Many of those in the Sinai seaside city of Dahab were Egyptian — some celebrating the long Coptic Christian Easter weekend and others marking Shem al-Nessim, an ancient holiday to usher in spring.

The three nearly simultaneous bombings on Monday shattered the evening tranquility, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 60 a day after Osama bin Laden issued a taped warning against Westerners.

The bombers struck the city in the early evening. Authorities said 18 of the dead were Egyptian and that a Russian and a Swiss were also killed.

The explosions — the third terrorist strike on a Sinai resort in less than two years — hit Dahab at 7:15 p.m. Interior Minister Habib el-Adly said those killed included 20 Egyptians and three foreigners, and that 62 people were wounded.

Later the ministry said the wounded included 42 Egyptians and 17 foreigners — including three Americans — while police put the number of wounded at more than 150. The discrepancies could not be immediately be explained.

“There were just three loud bangs and people rushing around,” British tourist Paul McBeath told Sky News. “Everybody is shaken.”

Another witness said the Al Capone restaurant, one of the area’s most popular spots, was destroyed.

“The tables and chairs have gone, there is nothing left,” Joseph Nazir, who owns a safari company in Dahab, told Britain’s Press Association. “Everybody is panicking, a lot of people are crying. We will be affected by this for a long, long time.”

Haven for tourists
For years, Dahab was 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 attack sent a steady stream of cars back to Israel some 65 miles to the north. Israeli authorities said 1,800 of their citizens were in the Sinai at the time of the blasts. However, there were far fewer Israelis vacationing in Sinai than during last week’s Passover holiday.

Israel’s ambassador in Cairo, Shalom Cohen, said the Israeli government had warned repeatedly against visiting the Sinai.

“Unfortunately, the warnings came true,” he told Israel’s Channel 10 TV.

President Hosni Mubarak, whose economy is heavily dependent on tourism, called the blasts a “sinful terrorist action.”

President Bush also condemned the attacks.

“Today we saw again that the terrorists are willing to try to define the world the way they want to see it,” Bush said in Las Vegas.

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