Bombs in Egypt kill 27 at resorts

Al-Qaida, not Palestinianmilitants, is suspected.
TABA, Egypt (AP) -- A string of bombs hit resorts popular with Israelis in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, collapsing a 10-story wing of a luxury hotel and sending thousands of terrified people streaming back into Israel today. At least 27 people were killed, and the death toll appeared likely to rise as rescuers searched through the rubble.
Suspicion fell quickly on Al-Qaida-inspired militants because the car and suicide bomb attacks were clearly coordinated, a hallmark of Osama bin Lader's terrorist network.
Most devastating
The most devastating of the Thursday night strikes were at the Taba Hilton, where a car laden with explosives crashed into the lobby and detonated. There were also reports of a second or third explosion within the hotel compound.
Those explosions were followed by two smaller blasts in the area of Ras Shitan, a camping area near the town of Nuweiba south of Taba, witnesses said.
Guests were frantic
Israeli rescue worker Shahar Zayit told Israel radio this morning that after daybreak the devastation at the Taba Hilton -- and frantic efforts of hotel guests to escape -- became clear.
"We saw really a battle zone -- everything on the western side from the lobby and to the roof had collapsed," Zayit said. "I see a lot of things like sheets tied together by people who tried to escape because stairwells also collapsed."
Israel's deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim, told Israel's Army Radio that Palestinian militants apparently were not involved and he suspected Al-Qaida affiliates.
"On the face of things, this is different from what we are familiar with from Palestinian terrorist groups," Boim said.
Children playing
Meir Frajun said his three children were playing one floor below the lobby when the blast tore through the building. He went down but found only two of them.
"Everything was filled with smoke," Frajun told The Associated Press after crossing into the nearby Israeli resort of Eilat. "We were hysterically looking for the child. In the end we found him sitting outside with an Arab guest of the hotel."
The Hilton was built by Israel when it controlled Taba from 1967 to 1989.
Officials initially reported at least 30 dead, but by today a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Gideon Meir, said 27 people were confirmed dead. The Egyptian Interior Ministry issued a statement the death toll had reached 22. At least four more people were believed buried in the rubble.
An official at Taba hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP 24 people were killed, including five Israelis, seven Egyptians and the rest foreigners whose nationalities were not immediately determined. Most of the deaths were at the Taba Hilton.
The discrepancy in figures could not be reconciled.
More than 100 people were injured, with reports as high as 160, and at least two Britons and an undetermined number of Russians were believed among the casualties.
Pickup trucks
The charred hulks of Toyota pickup trucks could be seen at the two sites today. One was blasted apart, its motor lying on the ground 20 yards away.
Amsalem Farrag, whose uncle and cousin own camps in Ras Shitan, said the two blasts were only five seconds apart. He said the camps were full of vacationing Israelis.
Egyptian government spokesman Magdy Rady suggested the blasts were related to the Israeli military operation in the neighboring Gaza Strip. At least 84 Palestinians have been killed in the nine-day-old offensive to stop militants from firing homemade rockets into Israel.
"I think it is very probable that there is a link between these three explosions," he added. "It is very unlikely they happened by chance."
Sinai's resorts were particularly crowded, with holidays in Egypt and Israel.
Who is responsible?
No established groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings, but three previously unknown groups claimed separately to have carried out the attacks.
Tawhid Islamic Brigades published a claim on a Web site that has been used frequently for such claims from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. And Jamaa Al-Islamiya, or World Islamist Group, called an international news agency in Jerusalem. A third group that called itself the "Brigades of the Martyr Abdullah Azzam, Al-Qaida, in the Levant Egypt," posted a claim on an Islamic Web site known for running messages purportedly from the Al-Qaida terror network. The claim described the attacks as a message to Palestinians and Muslims everywhere, and the Israeli government and people.
Contributors to those Web sites were praising the explosions, pointing to a recent videotape said to have been issued by Al-Qaida's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
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