http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...ni&c=Page&cid=968332188492&pubid=968163964505 CAIRO, Egypt — Police say multiple explosions in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik in the Sinai Peninsula have killed at least 25 people and wounded 110. A hotel was heavily damaged, witnesses said. The blasts shook windows far from the site and smoke was visible rising from the area, witnesses said. One blast hit the Ghazala Gardens hotel, a four-star resort on the main tourist strip in the Naama Bay area od Sharm el-Sheik, witnesses said. A second blast was heard in the Old Market, another Sharm neighbourhood. "The hotel was completely burned down, destroyed," said Amal Mustafa, 28, an Egyptian who was visiting Sharm with her family and who drove by the Ghazala Gardens. Khaled Sakran, a Sharm resident, said he saw the first blast from the Old Market. "I saw the fire in the sky," he said. "Right after, I saw a light in the sky and heard another explosion, coming from Naama Bay." He said he believed there was also a third blast.
OMG, I used to vacation in Sharm-al-Sheikh almost every time I visited Egypt, it's a beautiful place with thousands of tourists year round. That's sad, but I guess the self proclaimed "defenders of Muslim lands" are attacking Muslim lands. How ironic
Very sad to see this. I'm guessing they were targeting tourists a la the Bali nightclub bombing, but that's purely a guess. Sir Jackie Chiles started an interesting poll on this location back in April. I think this answers his question. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=95167
One of our fellow posters here had started a thread asking about planning a vacation to this place just a few months ago.
Yah, it's a great place, and it's always been a hotbed of tourists from all over the world, especially Europe (specifically Germans, Italians, and French). Some eyewitness accounts mentioned that an entire hotel was brought down by one of the explosions, I hope this is not true, because if so then there will be hundreds of people killed in the attack, especially since it was night time and people were sleeping.
Terrible. I am very sad to hear about this. Shocked, but not surprised. And glad my girl and I are back home safely....but still...this is horrible.
OK, apparently there were 7 bombings in Sharm-al-Sheikh, not just three, according to the Al-Jazeera correspondent. They say about 45 people, at least, were killed so far. Among the tourists were people from the Gulf (Qataris, Kuwaitis) and Europeans (Britons, Dutch). The death toll will likely rise...
Very sad... But I find it curious that not once is the word terrorist used in the posted article. [edit] it's not in the CNN article either... CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Multiple explosions struck the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula early Saturday, targeting a hotel and killing at least 30 people, witnesses and police said. Saturday's explosions at 1:15 a.m., when many tourists would have been asleep, shook windows a mile away. Smoke and fire rose from Naama Bay, a main strip of beach hotels in the desert city popular with Israeli and European tourists, witnesses said. At least 30 people were killed and 107 wounded in at least three explosions in Naama Bay and the Old Market area nearby, an Interior Ministry official said. Amal Mustafa, 28, an Egyptian who was visiting with her family, said she drove by the Ghazala Garden -- a 176-room four-star resort on the main tourist strip in Naama -- and it was "completely burned down, destroyed." Khaled Sakran, a resident, said he saw one explosion from the Old Market. "I saw the fire in the sky," he told The Associated Press. "Right after, I saw a light in the sky and heard another explosion, coming from Naama Bay." "The blast shook my house, I can see the fire and lots of smoke," Akram al-Sherif, a Jordanian who was staying at a summer house less than a mile away, said. In October 2004 a series of explosions hit several hotels in the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras ****an, about 100 miles northwest along the Gulf of Aqaba coast, killing 34 people. Egyptian authorities said that attack was linked to Israeli-Palestinian violence and launched a large wave of arrests in Sinai. Thousands of tourists are drawn to Sharm for its sun, clear blue water, and coral reefs. It also has been a meeting place where world leaders have tried to hammer out a Mideast peace agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met there in February and agreed to a cease-fire. http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/07/22/egypt.explosions.ap/index.html
I hate hearing about these things. It is awful. Trying to blow up people who have nothing to do with the gripes and grudges that groups and govts. hold is such an immoral waste.
Nothing nefarious Jackie Just that I find it curious that in the west we assume terror but not somewhere like Egypt.
Apparently it is, let me relay some of the things I saw/heard on the Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC)... Few of the people that were able to escape said that in one of the hotels that was blown up, they saw a man go in carrying a suitcase and putting it inside the hotel, and then the bomb went off. Another one apparently in the Old Market in the city was a car bomb, but it seems like all the explosions besides that one were bombs carried in suitcases.
There have been numerous bombings in Arab/Muslim countries before, it has been a global war for a while now.
I have no problem calling it terrrorism. I think it's political correctness. After all, these could be "freedom fighters" or "insurgents."
