CAIRO, 26 April 2006 — Ten Egyptians were detained yesterday in connection with Monday evening’s bomb blasts in the Sinai resort town of Dahab that left at least 18 people dead and 71 injured.
The Ministry of Interior announced that the suspects were being interrogated but did not provide further details. But one source said three of those detained were computer engineers who had arrived in Dahab from Cairo the day before the blasts, which went off nearly simultaneously.
Foreign holidaymakers described scenes of carnage in the aftermath of the explosions, which were detonated near a cafe, a restaurant and a supermarket in the tightly packed streets of the popular tourist town.
The Interior Ministry confirmed 18 deaths, among them four foreigners — a Russian, a Swiss man, a German child and a Lebanese national. Earlier the ministry put the death toll at 23. Lebanese authorities said they knew of no nationals killed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions, which bore the hallmarks of previous coordinated blasts in the region by local militants.
A little-known Sinai-based group is believed to have carried out two other similar attacks on the east coast of Sinai in the last two years, killing around 100 people — one in the northern resort of Taba and another at Sharm El-Sheikh.
Security experts downplayed possible links to external militant groups such as Al-Qaeda but say they may serve as inspiration for the local attackers, who are believed to be drawn from the disaffected Bedouin population of the Sinai.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah telephoned President Hosni Mubarak to convey his condolences and those of the Saudi government and the people on the deaths and injuries caused by the terrorist attack.
The bombings, the third similar-style attack in the Sinai Peninsula in the past 18 months, threatened to dent Egypt’s vital tourist industry, which brings in more than $7 billion a year and employs around 10 percent of the country’s work force.
As well as those formally detained, police said around 70 local Bedouin had been rounded up for questioning.
Despite the severity of the attack, most tourists said they planned to stay on in Dahab, a popular site for scuba diving, especially among backpackers.
“We don’t think we’re going to change our plans. You end up thinking that it could happen anywhere these days,” Swiss holidaymaker Matthias Barlocher said. “(But) it doesn’t feel right to be enjoying a holiday when you can see bloody footprints everywhere.” Trails of blood remained on a stretch of Dahab’s beach promenade, which is lined with restaurants and souvenir shops. In other places, shopkeepers washed away bloodstains with salt and water and attempted to go back to business.
Security officials said the explosions were probably caused by bombs attached to timers rather than by suicide bombers. Forensics experts completed their investigations earlier in the day but gave no details on any evidence they had collected.
On Monday, Egyptian authorities turned down Israeli emergency assistance, although such assistance was accepted and utilized after the Taba attack in which a number of Israelis were killed and injured.
Thirty-five of those injured in Monday’s attack were transferred to hospitals in and around Cairo.
One witness to the bombing, Australian Steve Torokfalvy, said he administered first aid to victims after one explosion smashed windows and blew out doors in his hotel. “There was one guy who was in a really bad way, who when we turned him round, I saw half his face was missing, we just tried to comfort him until we could get more help,” he said.
“From the top of the hotel you could see body parts on the roofs of the shops... It was horrible, it was really horrible.” Despite the carnage, Europe’s two largest tourism firms, TUI and Thomas Cook, said just four customers wanted to cut short their holidays in the region.
The triple attacks brought anguish and calls for an end to violence from Arabs across the region. “They want to change our government and break our people,” said Mustafa Mahmoud, 24, who works at a travel agency across the street from the American University of Cairo.
Mohieddine Joueidi, a 51-year-old lawyer in Sidon, Lebanon, said the attacks seemed “designed to weaken Egypt’s role in the region and spread panic and terror throughout the region.”
— Additional input from agencies
