Shards of glass and bloody body parts littered the ground yesterday as Egypt reeled from a three-bomb attack that ripped apart a Sinai beach resort promenade at the height of Egypt's tourist season, killing at least 24 people, including a German child. More than 60 others were hurt.
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.
Security police in Sinai said they had arrested for questioning three people who allegedly left Dahab shortly after the explosions. The police said they did not yet know if the explosions -- timed for maximum destruction along the promenade of bars, restaurants and shops on the holiday evening -- were caused by suicide bombers or bombs on timers.
PHOTO: AP
Asked whether they were suicide bombers, Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said: "The theory is not clear yet."
As police sifted the wreckage for clues, an Israeli official predicted the Sinai resorts -- popular with both Western and Israeli tourists and Egyptians -- would continue to be a prime target for Islamic extremists.
The attacks were expected to have an immediate impact on tourism, which is Egypt's No. 1 source of foreign exchange -- bringing in US$6.1 billion in 2004. The Sinai resorts account for about 25 percent of Egypt's hotel beds.
"Egypt is capable of overcoming such a crisis," Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said as he visited wounded survivors in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheik, the biggest city in south Sinai. "We have overcome bigger crises."
A 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."
The resort blasts were so powerful that police divers worked yesterday morning to retrieve body parts from the shallow waters of the sea. At one spot near the beach, two black sandals lay in a pool of blood on a wooden footbridge.
The country's biggest opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, condemned the attacks and "whoever might be behind them."
The triple blasts brought anguish and calls for an end to violence from Arabs across the region, many of whom questioned why Muslims have now become a prime target for terrorists.
"They want to change our government and break our people," said Mustafa Mahmoud, 24, who works at a travel agency in Cairo.
Governments also were quick to condemn -- as were radical Muslim groups who try to distance themselves from al-Qaeda-like groups.
Jordan's King Abdullah II said it was necessary to bolster "unified international efforts to combat this dangerous disease [terrorism], which is completely alien to our Islamic values and traditions."
Syrian President Bashar Assad also condemned the "criminal act."
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS