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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1464928/posts

U.S. warns Americans to avoid Sinai after bomb attack on peacekeepers
ASSOCIATED PRESS by way of San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | 16AUG05 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted on 08/17/2005 1:21:21 AM PDT by familyop

CAIRO, Egypt – The U.S. Embassy has warned Americans not to travel to the Sinai Peninsula following a roadside bombing that lightly wounded two Canadian women attached to a peacekeeping force.

Monday's blast, caused by a natural gas canister packed with explosives, targeted a vehicle belonging to the Multinational Force and Observers, an 1,800-member force helping monitor the 1979 Egypt-Israeli peace deal.

The embassy statement said the attack followed the reported discovery by Egyptian authorities of one ton of explosives in the north Sinai city of El Arish on Sunday and the reported shooting a day earlier at an intercity bus.

"In light of these incidents and previous terrorist attacks in Sinai targeting foreign tourists, Americans are urged to avoid travel to all of the Sinai," said the embassy.

"No American citizens were involved, but this attack represents a new incident of violence targeted against foreigners," the statement added.

The attack, which occurred on a highway about two miles from an MFO base near the Gaza border, came as Israel withdraws from Gaza and followed last month's bombings at a Sharm el-Sheik resort.

One of three groups that claimed responsibility for the Sharm blasts, which killed at least 64 people, issued a Web statement saying it was behind the latest bomb. The claim by the Mujahedeen of Egypt could not be independently verified.