Posted on 10/07/2004 9:25:39 PM PDT by yonif
Egyptian government spokesman Magdy Rady linked the terror attacks against resorts packed with Israelis in Sinai to the Israeli military operation against the Palestinians in the neighboring Gaza Strip, where 84 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli offensive that began on September 29 to stop terrorists from firing Kassam rockets into Israel.
"I think the explosions are very related to what is going on in Gaza," Rady told AP. It is very unlikely they happened by chance."
Rady added that Egypt "condemns these attacks, which have harmed many people."
Egyptians also were in the midst of a long holiday weekend marking the anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, so popular resort towns along the Sinai coast were packed.
Egypt has long struggled with Islamic terrorists interested in overthrowing the secular government, but has contained the threat with periodic crackdowns and by allowing Islamists some political activity.
The last major terrorist strike in Egypt was the 1997 massacre of 58 foreign tourists by Islamic extremists in the southern resort town of Luxor. "We haven't had anything like this since the Luxor event," Rady said.
He also said the explosions are sure to negatively affect, at least temporarily, Egypt's tourism industry, one of the country's economic mainstays.
"There will be damage definitely to the tourism in the area," he said, "but I hope it will not last long."
I wish the IDF would just go in and clean out these nests of terrorists.
Bush cannot get up and say "Go ahead", but I don't think he'd scream too loudly about it either.
He couldn't even wait until they got everyone out of the hotel?
Egypt needs to be awash in the waters of Lake Nasser..
"I wish the IDF would just go in and clean out these nests of terrorists."
No, No, it's the "settlers" who are the threat to Israel.
The miscegenational spawn of satan and barrow are merely "life" in Israel.
A rightwing Israeli on a news site said this after the attack, as a comeback to Israeli leftists calling for giving land to terrorists - : "end the occupation of Sinai! oh, we already did that....."
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