19 Dead in Red Sea Resort Blasts

19 Dead in Red Sea Resort Blasts
The biggest of the string of explosions late Thursday left a trail of carnage and destruction at the 10-storey Hilton hotel in Taba, a town just across the Israeli border that once hosted Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The explosions ripped through the hotel and two beach resorts packed with Israeli tourists on the Red Sea coast of Egypt's Sinai desert, killing at least 19 people and causing scenes of mayhem in attacks that Israel blamed on Al-Qaeda. The explosions occurred as Israelis were celebrating the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and followed intelligence warnings that Israelis should keep out of the Sinai because of possible attacks. Estimates of the number of dead varied through the night as rescuers combed the rubble of the hotel searching for survivors and bodies after the attacks, which came just a day after the 31st anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. According to the latest toll given by Israeli civil defence official General Yair Naveh, a total of 19 people were killed and another 38 people are missing, while the number of injured was put at 122. Israeli police said the explosion was caused by a powerful car bomb detonated near the entrance to the four-star Hilton, destroying a wing of the building. Footage showed collapse staircases and tangled piles of metal and concrete South Sinai governor General Mustafa Afifi said two charred trucks were found at the tourist camps of Shitani and Ras Soltan on the coast road south of Taba, indicating that the blasts were also caused by car bombs. Egypt threw up a security cordon around the blast sites in the Sinai -- renowned for its dramatic desert mountains and palm-fringed beaches -- and boosted airport security in Cairo. The explosions came amid a massive Israeli army offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip, a wedge of land near the border with Egypt, that has left 93 Palestinians dead in less than 10 days. **PHOTO CAPTION*** The Red Sea area is popular with Israeli holidaymakers. (Al-Jazeera)

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