Two suicide bombers struck near a Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) base in the Sinai near the Gaza border yesterday, just two days after terrorists exploded three bombs at a Sinai beach resort and killed 24 people, mostly Egyptians.
There was a separate report of an explosion at a police checkpoint in the Nile Delta in the north of the country, but the Interior Ministry and the provincial governor said the report was false.
"Nothing happened at all in ... the whole province," Sharqiyah province Governor Yahya Abdulmageed told Egyptian TV.
PHOTO: EPA
Security officials said the suicide attackers died in the strike near the peacekeeping base, and there were conflicting reports about wounded.
Major Nathan Bond, a spokesman for MFO confirmed there had been two separate suicide attacks, one targeting a MFO vehicle and a second one targeting an Egyptian security vehicle. He said there were no peacekeepers hurt in the attack, about 5km south of the Rafa border crossing to Gaza.
But Egyptian security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said one New Zealander and one Norwegian were hurt, along with four Egyptian policemen.
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Shatford, a spokesman for New Zealand's Defense Department told New Zealand Press Association that one New Zealand soldier was near the explosion but safe and back in his camp. He said had not details on injuries.
Norwegian military spokesman Thom Knustad confirmed that one Norwegian officer was in a vehicle hit by the Sinai blast, but that reports said that none of the four people traveling in the vehicle were injured.
At about the same time and on the Gaza side of the border, five Palestinians were injured when militants fired at them while trying to ram an explosives-laden car into the main Israel-Gaza crossing, Palestinian security officials said.
Palestinian officers opened fire on the car as it approached the Palestinian side of the Karni crossing, prompting two unidentified militants in the car to return fire, the security said. Three Palestinian officers and two civilians were wounded, the security officials said.
The two militants were arrested and security officials were dismantling a large amount of explosives found in the car, the officials said.
The Israeli border authority said it shut the crossing on order of Israeli defense officials in response to the attempted attack.
The MFO's 1,800 members monitor the 1979 Egypt-Israeli peace deal. A total of 10 countries make up the force but it is funded mainly by Egypt, Israel and the US.
The violence came as Egyptian investigators were questioning suspects arrested in connection with Dahab's deadly triple bombings. Security sources said 30 suspects had been rounded up since Monday's explosions.
The state-owned daily Al-Ahram said the three attacks were perpetrated by suicide bombers, who concealed their explosives in leather bags. The newspaper said investigators were running DNA tests to match body parts with identity papers bearing the name of Eid Atta Suleiman -- a Bedouin from northern Sinai -- which were found on the scene of one of the explosions.
Investigators also retrieved other body parts from the sea which they believe may belong to the suicide bombers.
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