Sharm El-Sheik - Terrorists turned the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh into a killing field in the early hours yesterday, crashing explosives-laden cars into a hotel and a busy market and triggering a bomb in a car park with remote control. At least 88 people were killed and 200 injured, police and hospitals said. All the dead, except nine, were Egyptians.
President Hosni Mubarak vowed to punish the perpetrators of the crime. "This cowardly, criminal act is aimed at undermining Egypt's security and stability and harming its people and its guests," Mubarak said during a live nationally televised broadcast.
"This will only increase our determination in chasing terrorism, cornering it and uprooting it. Terrorism will not deviate Egypt from pursuing development for its people and peace and stability for the region," Mubarak vowed. "Our battle with terrorism will continue with all the strength, resolve and will that we have," he said. "We will not bow to its blackmail or compromise with it."
The attacks were staged minutes apart shortly after 1 a.m., sending panicked tourists rushing out of bars and clubs on the glitzy Naama Bay strip.
In the most devastating of the strikes, a suicide bomber rammed his car through the security barrier and into the lobby of the luxury Ghazala Gardens hotel, sending chunks of debris flying and killing at least 30 people, mostly Egyptian staff.
Saudi businessman Salem Abdel Moneim, 34, said: "We were sitting in the restaurant of the Ghazala hotel when we heard a loud explosion. Broken glass flew all around and my friend was badly hurt. But we were very lucky. The Egyptians working in the restaurant helped us get into ambulances.
"I'm flying tomorrow to Saudi Arabia and so are all the Saudis here. What happened is absolutely terrible and unbelievable, but I'm grateful to the Egyptian government and doctors for their help," Salem added.
Another bomb went off on a car park a few hundred meters away from the Ghazala hotel, smashing shop fronts. A third bomb inside a car driven by a suicide bomber ripped through a busy market area, killing an undetermined number of people, some of them foreigners.
Hatem Gamal, 32, owner of an electronic shop in the market, said: "I came here 15 minutes after the explosion and saw a number of people lying dead and injured. They were left unattended for about an hour until the government realized that the news about the bombings were not rumors. I think this is the end of the future of tourism in Egypt and in Sharm El-Sheikh. We are all taking our stuff away from the shops and leaving because we know it is going to be dead here."
Police said at least nine foreigners were among the dead and another 20 wounded. The dead comprised two Britons, two Italians, one Ukrainian, one Russian, one Dutch citizen, a Czech national and an Israeli of Arab descent.
The number of foreign casualties could yet rise as many bodies were burned beyond recognition and had yet to be identified.
Egyptians, many of whom were enjoying a seaside break on a national holiday, took the brunt of the casualties.
A group citing ties to Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombings, according to a statement posted on a website. The group, calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, Al-Qaeda, in Syria and Egypt, said that its "holy warriors targeted the Ghazala Gardens hotel and the Old Market in Sharm El-Sheikh."
Another group, the previously unknown Mujahedi Masr or "Holy Warriors of Egypt," disputed the Brigades' claim, saying five of its own members died carrying out seven explosions.
The authenticity of both statements could not be immediately verified.
The Brigades were one of two groups that claimed responsibility for the Oct. 7 bombings at Sinai Peninsula Taba and Ras Shaitan that killed 34 people.
"Your brothers, the holy warriors of the martyr Abdullah Azzam Brigades succeeded in launching a smashing attack on the Crusaders, Zionists and the renegade Egyptian regime in Sharm El-Sheikh," said the statement.
"We reaffirm that this operation was in response to the crimes committed by the forces of international evil, which are spilling the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya."
Interior Minister Habib Al-Adly said Egypt already had some leads which appeared to show a connection with October bombings that killed 34 people further north in the Sinai Peninsula, including several Israelis.
"We have indications that could lead security services to those responsible for these terrorist operations," he told the official MENA news agency. "These elements suggest that the bombings may be linked to those that took place in Taba." Police arrested 35 people in the Sharm El-Sheikh area, security sources said, but it was not clear if they were suspected of close links with the bombers.
At hotels across Sharm El-Sheikh late yesterday, lobbies were jammed with tourists with their baggage, eager to leave. At the nearby international airport, foreigners lined up, with hundreds of Italians trying to get flights out. Some were prepared to wait overnight in the airport rather than stay at hotels.
"I wanted to stay for all the summer, but now I'm going home," said 27-year-old Stefano Alquati from Rimini, Italy, who travels each year to Sharm. "It's not good to stay here... Sharm El-Sheikh is finished, the business and all. I saw the panic."
Yesterday's attacks were the worst in Egypt since militants stormed a security headquarters in Assiut in 1981, killing 120 people.
-- Additional input from agencies
By Summer Said
© Arab News 2005
