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45 Dead and 200 Hurt in Sharm el-Sheikh
 A series of explosions, including at least four car bombs, struck the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik early Saturday, hitting several hotels packed with European and Egyptian tourists. Security officials said at least 45 people died in the deadliest attack in Egypt in nearly a decade. As many as seven explosions in quick succession shook the city, beginning at 1:15 a.m. and rattling windows miles away. Smoke and fire rose from Naama Bay, a main strip of beach hotels in the desert city at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, also popular with Israeli tourists, witnesses said.At least four car bombs were used in the attack, said a security official in the operations control room in Cairo monitoring the crisis in the city 230 miles to the southeast. One went off in the driveway of the Ghazala Gardens hotel, a 176-room four-star resort on the main strip of hotels in Naama Bay, said the governor of South Sinai province, Mustafa Afifi. The Ghazala was "completely burned down, destroyed," Amal Mustafa, 28, an Egyptian who was visiting Sharm with her family, told The Associated Press after driving by the site. Television video of the hotel, a three-story complex, showed parts of the building burned out with walls collapsed. Another car bomb exploded in the Old Market, an area a few miles away, killing 17 people â believed to be Egyptians â sitting at a outdoor coffee shop, the control room official said. Three minibuses were set ablaze. It was not clear if they were carrying passengers, the official said. Another blast went off near the Movenpick Hotel, said a receptionist there who declined to identify himself. Posted by: Seafarious 2005-07-23 |
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