Taba: Foreign tourists targeted

2004-10-08 20:17

Eilat, Israel - Israeli tourists took the brunt of Thursday's massive triple explosion in Sinai, but five Egyptians and at least one Russian tourist were also killed.

Eight Russians were injured, as were two Britons, while two Italian sisters were missing.

Provisional figures put the dead at least 28 with more than 100 injured when car bombs exploded at resorts packed with Israeli holidaymakers on the Red Sea coast of Egypt's Sinai desert.

Estimates of the number of dead varied through the night as rescuers combed the rubble of the hotel searching for survivors and bodies after the attacks, one of the deadliest ever on Egyptian soil.

Israeli army General Yair Naveh, who went to the scene, said 28 people had been killed in the attacks, including 23 Israelis.

But he stressed that the toll was provisional, and there appeared to be confusion on Friday over figures, because one Russian was also reported dead, in addition to eight injuries among Russian tourists, for whom Egypt has been a favourite holiday destination.

General Naveh said about 20 people were in hospital in Israel.

An explosion ripped through the Taba Hilton, a vast hotel between the shores of the Red Sea and the mountains of the Sinai peninsula, late on Thursday, followed by more blasts at a restaurant on the coast further south.

The hotel is within easy walking distance of Israel, across the frontier.

The blast followed official warnings that Israelis should keep out of the Sinai because of possible attacks.

The attacks occurred as Israelis were celebrating the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which commemorates the years that the Jews spent in the Sinai desert on their way to the Promised Land, and celebrates the way in which God protected them.

Among the missing were two Italian sisters, the foreign ministry in Rome said.

The British government said two Britons were among the injured.

Thousands of Israeli tourists are still drawn to the Sinai, especially for its outstanding Red Sea diving and its casinos, banned in the Jewish state. An estimated 30 000 Israelis had crossed into Egypt during the almost weeklong Sukkot, a border official said.

But thousands of panicked Israelis fled back into Israel on Friday from across the border in Egypt.

- AFP