Blasts kill 88 in Egyptian Red Sea resort
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-23 08:49

MUBARAK RESOLUTE

The injured foreigners were nine Italians, five Saudis, three Britons, a Russian, a Ukrainian and an Israeli Arab, spokeswoman Hala el-Khatib told reporters. But the British Foreign Office in London said eight Britons were injured.

Rescue workers look for injured people under the rubble of a hotel after it was destroyed by a bomb late last night in the red sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh July 23, 2005. [Reuters]

In a short statement read on television, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said: "This will only make us more determined to pursue terrorism and dig it out by the roots ... We will not give in to its blackmail, or seek a truce."

World leaders condemned the bombings. The White House called the attacks "barbaric" and said President George W. Bush had spoken to Mubarak to offer help to the victims and "bringing the perpetrators of these acts to justice."

Egyptian security personnel and forensic experts examine the rubble of a hotel after it was destroyed by a bomb in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh July 23, 2005. [Reuters]

But an Iranian government spokesman said Washington had contributed. "Unfortunately a simplistic, wrong approach by the United States in fighting terrorism has made the world unsafe," he said.

A group claiming links to the al Qaeda organisation said it carried out the bombings in retaliation for "crimes committed against Muslims", according to an Internet statement.

The statement, which was not carried on major al Qaeda Web sites, was signed by the Abdullah al-Azzam Brigades of the al Qaeda Organisation in the Levant and Egypt. It was not possible to authenticate the claim.

Police arrested 35 people in the Sharm el-Sheikh area, security sources said, but it was not clear if they were suspected of close links with the bombers.

Egyptian Interior Minister Habib el-Adli said it was too early to say whether al Qaeda or other Islamist groups had any connection with the bombings but he said there was probably a link with attacks further north last October.

Egyptian authorities blamed those attacks, which killed 34 people mostly at the Taba Hilton on the Israeli border, on a Palestinian leading an unaffiliated group.

Last month Israel stepped up warnings to its own citizens, saying the risk of another such attack had risen.

The attacks on Saturday were the worst in Egypt since militant Islamists stormed a security headquarters in the southern city of Assiut in 1981, killing some 12O police.

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