Blasts linked to 'Islamists'

2006-04-25 22:08

Cairo - Egypt's state-owned newspapers on Tuesday linked the deadly blasts, which rocked the Red Sea resort of Dahab with previous Islamist attacks in the Sinai.

The reports said: "The preliminary findings of the investigation show a possible link between these attacks and those in Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh."

According to the interior ministry, 23 people were killed in the three almost simultaneous explosions that ripped through a busy neighbourhood of Dahab late on Monday.

The Egyptian judiciary recently announced that an Islamist group calling itself Tawhid wal Jihad was responsible for the multiple bombings on Sharm el-Sheikh in July 2005 and other Red Sea resorts further north in October 2004.

October 2004 attacks killed 34

Thirteen new suspects appeared before the attorney general in March as part of the trial of a group accused of perpetrating the October 2004 attacks, which left at least 34 people dead.

Al-Ahram said: "Three terrorists from the group that carried out the previous bombings - Nasr Khamis al-Milahi, Eid Salama al-Tarawi and Mohammed Abdallah Abu Girgir - all members of Tawhid wal Jihad - confessed during interrogation that they were planning to hit other tourist targets in south Sinai."

The reports said: "This could be a reaction to what is happening in Iraq and in the Palestinian territories.

"The Tawhid wal Jihad group, which perpetrated the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks, is responsible for this heinous crime."

A group calling itself Tawhid wal Jihad (Unification and Holy War) was among a number of organisations, which claimed the October 2004 attacks as well as those in Sharm el-Sheikh that killed another 70 people.

Both attacks were followed by huge crackdowns in the Sinai Peninsula, a desert area close to Israel, the Gaza Strip, Jordan and Saudi Arabia that was generally considered Egypt's Achilles heel in terms of security.

- AFP