Blast in Egypt-Israel Border Hotel, Bomb Suspected



Thu Oct 7, 2004 05:46 PM ET

By Megan Goldin

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A huge blast tore through an Egyptian hotel used by vacationing Israelis at the border resort of Taba on Thursday, scattering dozens of bodies in what Israeli security sources said was a suspected bomb attack.

At least 23 people were killed in the attack on the Hilton hotel, just meters from the border crossing, said Arab television, quoting Egyptian sources.

The blast was followed shortly by explosions at two other resort towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula popular with Israelis.

Israeli media said the Hilton hotel was ablaze and 10 floors of it had collapsed. Israeli rescue teams rushed to the scene.

"I heard a huge explosion. The wall near me collapsed and people began to run. There were many casualties," one Israeli witness called Yigal told Israel's Army Radio.

"The explosion was outside. When we went out we saw the shops and the internal wall of the hotel had collapsed...

"Some people said it was a gas canister explosion and others said it was a terrorist attack. There are a lot of people (lying on the ground). There is a lot of blood, a lot of screaming."

Israeli security forces had warned Israeli travelers against visiting Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea, saying they might be targeted by Palestinian militants waging a 4-year-old uprising or by Islamic groups.

Senior Israeli security sources said they suspected the explosion "was a terrorist attack."

"We are not absolutely sure, but this is what it looks like," said one senior source.

The radio stations reported explosions in the Egyptian resorts of Nueiba and Ras al-Sultan dozens of kilometers (miles) to the southwest of Taba where the first explosion occurred. Thousands of Israelis have traveled to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, a popular holiday destination, during the Sukkot holiday. Witnesses said there were also many Russians at the hotel.

Sinai was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war but returned to Egypt after a 1979 peace deal, one of the few that Israel has with Arab countries.

Israeli firefighters and ambulances rushed to Taba after an initial delay. Officials in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said he had contacted Egyptian officials to ensure they could cross.

Hundreds of Israelis have been killed in suicide bombings during four years of conflict with the Palestinians. Egyptian resorts had remained popular with Israelis despite popular animosity in Egypt to the Jewish state.


 www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6445478

Religion of peace.




- BG

Quoted: Religion of peace. - BG

Yes…







Andy

Notice that the Palis still had to go outside the wall.

Why in gods name would a Israeli go to Egypt anywyas?  Go to Florida, go to Greece.

Quoted: Religion of peace.

Yah.  

Israeli security forces had warned Israeli travelers against visiting Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea, saying they might be targeted by Palestinian militants waging a 4-year-old uprising or by Islamic groups.


What part of this do they NOT understand? Geez, you'd think they'd know better...

Quoted: damn!!! oh well...i'll run around the site, now...posting nice things about muslims like a good little sheep should. the israelis will soon be hard at work...not overly concerned with semantics and the moral high ground. i got a feeling the west bank is gonna rock tonight, folks!

Woo hoo!   Hope they aren't cheap with those hellfire missiles.


- BG

Quoted: Israeli security forces had warned Israeli travelers against visiting Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea, saying they might be targeted by Palestinian militants waging a 4-year-old uprising or by Islamic groups. What part of this do they NOT understand? Geez, you'd think they'd know better...

Ahh yes, the "blame the victim" response.  I'm surprised to see it on Arfcom tho... especially considering this can happen anywhere they LIVE, nevertheless vacation.


- BG

i got a feeling the west bank is gonna rock tonight, folks!

Quoted: Israeli security forces had warned Israeli travelers against visiting Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea, saying they might be targeted by Palestinian militants waging a 4-year-old uprising or by Islamic groups. What part of this do they NOT understand? Geez, you'd think they'd know better...

Israelis have been holidaying in the Sinai resorts without problems and safely for 20 or more years… it's an international tourist destination.

I hope they use some of our weaponry to blow the shit out of some Muslim fucktards tonight!

RIDE THE LIGHTNING MOTHER FUCKERS!!!

--------
GRH - God's Right Hand :"Hold No Quarter. Feel No Remose"

I don't mind it if my tax dollars go to Israel so the Jews can kick some terrorist ass. Not at all.

Wow. Those "Chechen rebels" sure do get around.

This is probably just more Israeli propaganda. Everyone knows that followers of the "Religion of Peace" would NEVER do something like THIS. In fact, on second thought, it just may be BUSH'S fault!

[Hijack]

Do you think Paris Hilton can even FIND Egypt on a map of the world??

[/Hijack]

Quoted: [Hijack] Do you think Paris Hilton can even FIND Egypt on a map of the world?? [/Hijack]

I couldn't care less if she can.

Woody

There is a thread on this over on TankNet 63.99.108.76/ubb/Forum8/HTML/012579.html

Saying some interesting things.

The Egyptians are not allowing Israeli Civilian rescue experts to come across the border.

There have been attacks at two other resort towns Nuweiba and Ras al Saltan with unknow damage and casualties.

Reports of mortar or rocket attacks rather than bombs.

So many people are rushing to get back across the border into Israel that a near riot has broken out and Egyptian Border Police have been shooting into the air...

Quoted: Quoted: Religion of peace. - BG Yes… img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/macandy/plonazianim2.gif img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/macandy/sieganim1.gif img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/macandy/islamdominatetheworld.jpg Andy

Cool pics.

Religion of peace my A$$.

October 07, 2004 Egypt Bombing Updates/Responsibility Claimed [Update -2-] [First reported here, there may be some overlapping on these updates] The death toll varies from source to source; this one says that at least 35 are dead - that’s the highest number thus far. Reuters reports that there are at least 100 injured. Israel offers to evacuate Israelis at Egyptian resorts : Israel says it will evacuate any of the 12- to 15-thousand Israelis who wish to leave Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula following deadly resort attacks. A spokeswoman for Israel’s foreign ministry says there is a plan to send buses to the area, located just across the border with Egypt. To recap, the blasts (at least three) happened at Egyptian resort areas where Israelis were vacationing and celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. “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, according to The Associated Press. “I am standing outside of the hotel, the whole thing is burning and they have nothing to put it out with.” “We know of other people trapped under the ruins of the hotel,” rescue worker spokesman Yerucham Mendola told the AP. The first explosion occurred at the Hilton hotel in the Taba resort, packed at around 10 p.m. The second explosion took place in the popular destination for Israelis,Ras Hasatan. The third blast happened in another resort town, Nuweiba, located on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Originally thought to be caused by exploding gas cannisters, Israeli officials now say that the blasts were caused by car bombs: Israeli media reported a burned out car was found at the scene and that 10 floors of the 400-room Hilton had collapsed. Analysis: Target was Israelis as well as Israel-Egypt ties Update: Israeli security sources said there was growing conviction that the explosion had been caused by a bomb-laden truck Update: Someone has made the claim: “Jamaa Al-Islamiya Al-Alamiya (World Islamist Group) claims responsibility for the explosion at the Taba hotel, carried out in revenge for the Palestinian and Arab martyrs dying in Palestine and Iraq,” the caller said. “Jamaa will carry out a series of martyr operations (suicide attacks) during the month of Ramadan to avenge these martyrs,” he said. Update: Rusty Shackleford has good coverage of the attacks. [To be updated] Posted by Michele at October 7, 2004 08:12 PM | TrackBack

Quoted: Andy

... Do you people realize that is an Al Qaeda on the right?

Quoted: Quoted: img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/macandy/islamdominatetheworld.jpg Andy ... Do you people realize that is an Al Qaeda on the right?

Yes… and it makes my blood boil…

Andy

Dont a lot of Britons go to Red Sea starting this time of the year?

Yea , but I would still blow a load in the Paris Hilton .

Quoted: Dont a lot of Britons go to Red Sea starting this time of the year?

Very popular location… especially for scuba diving enthusiasts…

ANdy

Wouldn't surprise me if the situation deteriorated into chaos, given the location of the blasts.

Latest news……

"Al-Qaeda 'behind Egypt bombings'


Dozens were injured in the bomb attacks

Rescuers are hunting for survivors of three bomb blasts at Egyptian resorts popular with Israelis in which 25 people died.
The biggest of the explosions, at the Hilton hotel in Taba, on Egypt's border with Israel, killed 23 people.
The others hit a backpacker camping area near the resort of Nuweiba, 60km (38 miles) further south, killing a further two.
Israeli officials say they suspect al-Qaeda involvement.
The Taba attack was caused by a car bomb which blew up after ramming the hotel.
An Israeli general says 122 people were wounded there.

 I was in the casino when it happened. There was a massive explosion and the left wall came down

Yigal Vakni
Witness


Britons among blast injured

The other two bombings were in a campsite at Ras al-Shitan, an area that is popular with young Israeli backpackers.
The dead are believed to be mainly Israeli and Egyptian, while some of the wounded are Britons and Russians.
It is the first major attack on Egyptian soil since the terrorist attack in the city of Luxor in 1997, in which 58 tourists were shot or hacked to death by Islamist militants.
It is also the first major attack on Israelis abroad since the bombing two years ago of a hotel near the Kenyan resort of Mombasa, in which some 16 people died.

Co-operation

Ten floors of Taba's Hilton hotel have collapsed.
Israeli rescue teams with bulldozers and cranes have headed across the border towards the hotel to look through the wreckage.
There was still hope of finding people alive in the rubble on Friday "because there are several air pockets", senior Israeli army officer Yair Naveh told the Associated Press news agency.
Earlier, an elderly Israeli woman and her granddaughter were pulled out alive of the ruins after emergency crews heard a cry from the seventh floor, Reuters news agency reports. The grandmother later died of her wounds, officials said.
Casualties are being treated in Taba and the nearby Israeli resort of Eilat.

Specialist religious teams who recover body parts following suicide attacks in Israel have also been sent in.
This indicates there is co-operation between Israel and Egypt, says the BBC's James Reynolds on the Israeli-Egyptian border.
Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim, who is in Taba, said it was too early to say who carried out the attacks, which could not have been anticipated.

But he told reporters: "In my personal opinion, it seems that it is more fitted to the international terror groups like al-Qaeda or some branches of al-Qaeda."

The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have denied they were involved.

Jewish holiday

Taba is the main crossing point between Israel and Egypt, and a major gateway for thousands of Israelis going on holiday to resorts and hotels on the Red Sea.
Many holidaymakers would have been celebrating the last day of a Jewish holiday, Sukkot.
The Israeli government has told them to get out of Egypt. Hundreds of Israeli tourists walking across the border quietly and sadly, many with tears in their eyes, our correspondent says.

Last month, the Israeli government urged its citizens not to visit Egypt, saying there had been a firm threat to tourists there.
The Hilton hotel is cut off from the outside world by the Israeli border to the north and an Egyptian checkpoint immediately to the south.
The Egyptian authorities have long regarded the eastern Sinai coast, along the Gulf of Aqaba, as less likely terrorist targets than the great monuments along the Nile.

It is a long way across the barren peninsula and security is fairly easily enforced.

At the end of 2000, the hotel hosted the last serious round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. It also attracts Israeli gamblers to its casino.


news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3725662.stm

A child injured in the explosion in Taba, Egypt, is wheeled into a hospital in Beersheva, Israel

This pregnant Israeli woman was among the scores who were injured by the blast in the Red Sea resort town.

So AQ is limited to attacks in Arab countries now?
I'd say Bush is doing a pretty good job.

Quoted: Quoted: Israeli security forces had warned Israeli travelers against visiting Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea, saying they might be targeted by Palestinian militants waging a 4-year-old uprising or by Islamic groups. What part of this do they NOT understand? Geez, you'd think they'd know better... Ahh yes, the "blame the victim" response.  I'm surprised to see it on Arfcom tho... especially considering this can happen anywhere they LIVE, nevertheless vacation. - BG

Uh, I don't see where I said "blame the victims"? If their government puts out a warning that this shit will be going down I think they need to listen up. But I guess you'd rather twist my words around at make it sound like I'm coming down on them. Whatever floats your boat...

Quoted: Quoted: Israeli security forces had warned Israeli travelers against visiting Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea, saying they might be targeted by Palestinian militants waging a 4-year-old uprising or by Islamic groups. What part of this do they NOT understand? Geez, you'd think they'd know better... So where can Israelies go on vacation where they do not have to fear being murdered for being Israelie? I doubt that they can all afford an annual trip to Disney land.

There's no difference if they were Israeli or American. They want to kill us both. Are you saying that "vacation" was more important than their life? I think not.

....meanwhile Paris Hilton plans out her next "accidental" drug/alcohol/sex feast video

Quoted: Ahh yes, the "blame the victim" response. I'm surprised to see it on Arfcom tho... especially considering this can happen anywhere they LIVE infest a civilized society, nevertheless vacation. fixed that for ya!

Ummmm! You want to amplify that a bit?  I'm curious as to just who it is you think "infest's a civilized society"  Isrealis? Jews? Muslims? Arabs?