CAIRO (Reuters):
THREE APPARENT bomb blasts ripped through Egypt's Red Sea resort of Dahab yesterday, killing 30 people and wounding more than 100, rescue officials said.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called the blasts a terrorist act, the state news MENA reported.
"The president stressed the need to ... track down those responsible for this wicked terrorist act so that they pay the penalty by force of law," MENA said.
Residents said they saw body parts and debris in the street outside a restaurant and witnesses said smoke billowed up from the tourist bazaar in Dahab, a Sinai peninsula beach and diving centre popular with foreign holidaymakers including Israelis.
TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
Officials in neighbouring Israel said they were unaware of any Israeli casualties in the explosions.
"There were body parts and debris in the street ... There are ambulances and cars taking people to hospital," said one Dahab resident, who like other witnesses requested anonymity.
A cafe worker near the scene of one explosion said: "We saw many dead people. People were screaming. People were being taken to hospital. There's police everywhere."
Several attacks have occurred in Egypt's Sinai peninsula in the last two years. Dahab lies between Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh where dozens of people were killed in bombings in 2004 and 2005.
Last July, more than 60 people, including foreigners, were killed when two car bombs and a suitcase bomb ripped through hotels and shopping areas in Sharm el-Sheikh, another popular tourist spot.
Egyptian authorities attributed the Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks to a small Sinai-based group originally led by a man of Palestinian origin and with militant Islamist views.
The Dahab blasts occurred at about 7:15 p.m. (1715 GMT) on Monday, part of a five-day spring holiday in Egypt, and hit the Nelson Restaurant, Aladdin cafe and Ghazala supermarket.
One visitor to the town said cars and buses leaving the resort were being stopped by police.
A Muslim militant movement dedicated to overthrowing Mubarak and setting up a strict Islamic state emerged two decades ago. In October 1990, militants shot and killed parliament speaker Rifaat Mahgoub in central Cairo. They later tried to kill Prime Minister Atef Sedki, Interior Minister Hassan el-Alfi and Information Minister Safwat el-Sherif.
In June 1995, militants attacked Mubarak's motorcade in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa but the president escaped unhurt.
The militant movement, dominated by al-Gama'a al-Islamiya (The Islamic Group), operated mainly in southern Egypt. At least 1,200 people, mostly militants and police, were killed between 1992 and 1997.
The violence subsided after Gama'a militants killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor in November 1997.
