[Mb-civic] Egypt bomb toll rises to 88 - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

<>Egypt bomb toll rises to 88
Red Sea resort reeling; official cites possible tie to '04 blast in Sinai

By Anne Barnard and Dan Ephron, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent  |  
July 24, 2005

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt -- The death toll climbed sharply to 88 yesterday 
in the triple bombings that struck this Red Sea resort, and security 
forces explored possible links between the attacks and another on the 
Sinai Peninsula nine months ago.

Frantic tourists packed the local airport trying to get flights out. 
Those who remained surveyed the destruction, and dazed local workers 
wandered past deserted shops and restaurants.

The bombs exploded nearly simultaneously just after 1 a.m. local time 
yesterday. One suicide bomber rammed a car through the front of a hotel, 
leveling the reception area, witnesses said. Another car bomb ripped 
through a restaurant catering to tourism workers and destroyed shops 
near the town's Old Market. A third bomb, possibly left in a sack, 
scattered shrapnel across a street near Naama Bay that is popular with 
shoppers, clubgoers, and nighttime strollers.

Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, toured the wreckage of the Ghazala 
Garden hotel and vowed in a televised statement, ''This will only 
increase our determination in pursuing terrorism."

<>The attacks rattled Egyptians and tourists alike, coming on the heels 
of the London bombings that killed 56 people on July 7 and the failed 
attacks in the British capital on Thursday, and at a time when violence 
is on the rise in Iraq. Many found the latest attacks all the more 
jarring because they took place in a resort that seemed far removed from 
the conflicts associated with other recent violence.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/07/24/egypt_bomb_toll_rises_to_88/ 

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