By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer
| Minor rewrite of the last post... |
A strong explosion shook the Hilton hotel in Egypt's Taba resort, only yards from the Israeli border, as many Israelis were vacationing Thursday night at the close of a Jewish holiday. Egyptian security officials said there were "a large number of wounded." "The whole front of the hotel has collapsed. There are dozens of people on the floor, lots of blood. It is very tense," witness Yigal Vakni told Israel's Army Radio. "I am standing outside of the hotel, the whole thing is burning and they have nothing to put it out with." The Egyptian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the explosion took place among gas tanks in the kitchen of the hotel, which is next to the casino where many tourists were at the time of the blast. They said they had no initial indications that the blast was a result of terrorism.
From the radio : unconfirmed deathtoll is now at 23, blast is said to be a carbomb (israeli radio), while egyptian authorities speaks of an accidental explosion due to a gas leak
At least 30 people were killed and about 114 were wounded, both Israelis and other nationals, in a large explosion at the Hilton Hotel in Taba, near the Israel-Egypt border after 10:00 p.m. Thursday evening. A fire is raging at the hotel. Israel Police said that a car bomb caused the explosion at the hotel, Channel 10 TV said. Searches showed the engine of a car in the hotel's lobby.
| That kinda shoots down the faulty stove story... |
Over 60 of the wounded have been rushed to the Taba crossing where Magen David Adom ambulances were waiting to evacuate them to the Josephthal Hospital in Eilat. The hospital has asked Eilat residents to make their way to the hospital and donate blood. 12 wounded people have been taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Doctors in the south of Israel were asked to come to Eilat, and surgeons from across the country will be flown to the southern city to aid the local medical personal. Social workers are also arriving at Eilat and Sinai to assist.
Not long after the Taba blast, two explosions rocked Ras Al-Satan, another resort area in the Sinai Peninsula. There is no word on how many casualties are at the scene. Unconfirmed reports based on Israelis in the area say seven Egyptians have been wounded in a blast in that area. Israel is asking permission from Egyptian authorities to land helicopters in Ras a-Satan Egyptian state reported that the whole western side of the hotel, including seven stories, collapsed. The building itself is in danger of collapsing and casualties are reportedly captured under the ruins.
Israeli media reports said the explosion was caused by either a double suicide bombing or a booby-trapped car. However, Egyptian public television has reported that a gas leak was the cause. An eyewitness told Channel 1 TV that the explosion at the Taba Hotel did not occur near the Casino, contrary to media reports. The Hilton Hotel in Taba is frequented by Israelis traveling to Sinai and many Israelis arrived there over the past days of the Succot and Simchat Torah holidays. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and asked him to allow Israeli paramedics to enter Egypt and evacuate the wounded to Israel. Shortly after, Egyptian officials allowed Israeli ambulances to cross into Egypt. Israeli paramedics reached the Hilton Hotel and are currently assisting Egyptian rescue workers. The Israel Defense Forces dispatched medical crews and ground forces to the Taba terminal area. Two helicopters and a large plane have also been sent to Eilat to assist with transferring the wounded to hospitals across the country. Israelis returning from Sinai are reporting crowded conditions in the Taba crossing into Israel. Israel Radio reported Egyptian soldiers began shooting in the air to stop the pushing and shoving. The Eilat Municipality opened the city's Rabin School for Israelis returning from Sinai to spend the night.
Officials in the Shin Bet told The Jerusalem Post that it is too premature to determine whether the explosion was caused by suicide bombers or a car bomb parked at the entrance to the hotel. The official stressed that for a number of weeks specific warnings were received of plans by terrorists to launch an attack against Israelis in Sinai. The Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning to Sinai shortly before the High Holy Days. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered OC Home Front Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh to travel to Eilat with emergency squads to assist with the evacuations.
A blast ripped through the Hilton hotel in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Taba, with medical sources saying at least 100 people had been killed or wounded. The blast, the reasons for which were not immediately clear, killed or wounded at least 100 people of different nationalities, an Egyptian hospital source said. At least 23 Israelis were killed in the blast, Egyptian police said. Israeli radio reported that the blast was likely an attack, with an Israeli foreign ministry saying it could have been a car bomb attack, although the Egyptian public TV had earlier said the blast was due to a gas leak.
Bomb blasts hit three Egyptian Red Sea resorts used by vacationing Israelis on Thursday and at least 30 people were feared dead from the biggest explosion, Israeli media said. A blast that tore through Taba's Hilton hotel, just yards from the border crossing point, was followed shortly by explosions at two other resort towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula popular with Israelis. Israeli media said the Hilton hotel in Taba was ablaze and 10 floors had collapsed, possibly trapping some people in the rubble. Israeli rescue teams rushed over the border.
...Israel Police said that at least 30 people had been killed in the blast, mostly Israeli tourists. A source at Taba Hospital said that 114 people had been wounded. Israeli security sources said there was growing conviction that the explosion had been caused by a bomb-laden truck. Two other blasts occurred about two hours later in the area of the nearby resort towns of Ras Satan, a camping area full of Israeli tourists, and Nueiba, witnesses said. Several hours after the blast, Egyptian television said that Egyptian police have made initial arrests of people suspected of involvement in the bombings, Channel 2 reported.
| I'm really curious as to who they might be... |
A source at the southern Sinai health directorate said one Egyptian was killed in the explosion at Ras Satan. Channel 10 said that two Israelis were killed in the blast there. According to an Egyptian official, two people - an Israeli and an Egyptian - were killed in Nueiba. Egyptian television said 43 people had been wounded in the explosion at the resort, almost all of them non-Egyptians. The explosion at the Hilton, which took place in the lobby of the hotel at around 10 P.M., caused the ceiling of the lobby to collapse. The hotel was at full occupancy at the time of the explosion. A fire then broke out at the hotel, and hotel guests on the upper floors were evacuated via the emergency exits. Some 10 floors of the western part of the hotel later caved in as well.
Egypt has informed Israel that it will do everything necessary to help Israel bring Israelis home from the Sinai, Channel 2 reported. Four hours after the blast, the Israel Defense Forces were in command of the scene, said the IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Ruth Yaron. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom asked his Egyptian counterpart for permission to allow Israelis to pass through the border crossing without documentation checks and to fly rescue workers into the Sinai, Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir said. Shalom also said Israel wants to send between 20 and 30 buses to the Sinai to bring home the approximately 15,000 Israelis still in the Sinai.
Palestinians Deny Responsibility
Palestinian officials, however, denied any link to the explosions, but said Israeli repeated aggressions against their people could be a motive for revenge. "Our battle with Israel is limited to occupied Palestinian territories and no Palestinian (resistance) faction is behind the Sinai blasts," security consultant of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, General Jibril Al-Rajoub, said on Al-Jazeera. "Israeli continuous onslaughts and ignoring of all international resolutions lead to frustration and if these blasts were a revengeful act, only Israel has itself to blame."
Following Israel's assassination Sunday, September 26, of a senior Hamas member in the Syrian capital Damascus, Hamas political leaders declared their war with Israel was limited to their Palestinian lands, rejecting Israel's attempts to a war outside the borders. Several observers, commenting on Sinai blasts on Al-Jazeera, agreed the Palestinian factions could never be behind the blasts, citing very good relations and close consultations with the Egyptian government. "No Palestinian faction could be implicated here, especially Hamas. They are too smart to risk losing a strong supporter like Egypt. It could be Al-Qaeda or any one else, but not Palestinians," Abdul Bari Atwan, Editor-in-chief of London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry sources, on the other hand, were quick to put the blame on the Palestinians and a spokesman went even further by blaming Al-Qaeda. "These terrorist acts are committed by the Palestinians and by Al-Qaeda militants against Israeli citizens," Lieour Bindour, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman told Al-Jazeera. He, however, refused to link the blasts to Israel's ongoing onslaught against Gaza, insisting the Palestinians needed no justification to attack the Israeli citizens. The spokesman further refused to answer a question on the reasons behind such attacks. Egyptian sources refused, however, to say anything decisive about the cause or responsibility of the blasts.
| Fox News says "Jamaa al-Islamiyyah al-Alamiyyah" (World Islamic Group) is claiming responsibility for the blasts. Dan his the link at Winds of Change. I'm wondering if the booms at the Sheraton in Baghdad and near the U.S. embassy in Kabul at about the same time are coincidental... |
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