2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks

Infobox terrorist attack
title=2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks


caption=The Ghazala Gardens Hotel, one of the targeted locations.
location=Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
target=A market in downtown Sharm and the Ghazala Gardens hotel
date=July 23, 2005
time-begin=01:15 am
time-end=01:20 am
timezone=UTC+3
type=Suicide bombings
fatalities=64-88
injuries=~ 150
perps=Bedouin militants

The 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks were a series of terror attacks on July 23, 2005, perpetrated by a Wahhabi organization, targeting the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, located on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Eighty-eight people were killed, the majority of them Egyptians, and over 200 were wounded by the blasts, making the attack the deadliest terrorist action in the country's history.

The bombings coincided with Egypt's Revolution Day, which commemorates Nasser's 1952 overthrow of King Farouk. They were intended to hurt one of Egypt's most important vacation spots, a tourism capital that had billions of dollars invested in it, and achieved that goal as it was registered that many tourists vacated and there were numerous cancellations.

As a response, there were many arrests, especially of the Bedouin in the Sinai who were alleged for aiding the attack, and Egypt started erecting a separation barrier around the city, cutting it off from possible attacks and the nearby Bedouin community. [http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/17/795192 languageicon|he|Hebrew]

Explosions

The attacks took place in the early morning hours, at a time when many tourists and locals were still out at restaurants, cafés and bars. The first bomb blast, at 01:15 local time (22:15 UTC), happened at the Old Market bazaar in downtown Sharm el-Sheikh, killing 17 people, mostly Egyptians. The bomber had to abandon his truck bomb in the market because of a police roadblock. [ [http://www.tkb.org/Incident.jsp?incID=24490 MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base ] ] The second bomb was hidden in a suitcase and exploded outside the Moevenpick Hotel, killing six tourists. [ [http://www.tkb.org/Incident.jsp?incID=24491 MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base ] ] The final bomb was a truck bomb that was driven into the lobby of the Ghazala Gardens hotel, a 176-room four-star establishment in the Naama Bay area, a strip of beachfront hotels some 6 km from the town centre. About 45 people died in this blast. [ [http://www.tkb.org/Incident.jsp?incID=24538 MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base ] ]

The blasts were powerful, shaking windows miles away. Fire and smoke could be seen rising from the explosion sites.

Casualties

While the official government toll a few days after the blast was put at 64, hospitals reported that 88 people had been killed in the bombings.

The majority of dead and wounded casualties were Egyptians. Among those killed were 11 Britons, two Germans, six Italians, four Turks, one Czech, one Israeli, and one American. [ [http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2005/07/28/story213846.asp BreakingNews.ie - 2005/07/28: Egypt terror suspects detained ] ] Other casualties, dead and wounded, included foreign visitors from France, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, and Spain. [ [http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/23/content_3256722.htm Xinhua - English ] ]

Responsibility

A group calling itself the "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" was the first to claim responsibility for the attacks. On a website the group stated that "holy warriors targeted the Ghazala Gardens hotel and the Old Market in Sharm el-Sheikh" and claimed it has ties to Al-Qaeda. [ [http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1421282.htm Police question dozens over Egypt bombings. 25/07/2005. ABC News Online ] ]

The Egyptian government said that the bombers were Bedouin militants from the same group that carried out the bombings in Taba a year before. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/01/AR2005100101293_pf.html Egypt Gets Tough in Sinai In Wake of Resort Attacks ] ] Arrested suspects claimed to have been motivated by the War in Iraq. [ [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aAkahHyWCDoA&refer=germany Bloomberg.com: Germany ] ]

Background

Historically, foreign tourists have been a common target of attacks dating back to the early 1990s. Militants have typically been motivated by a combination of Islamic fundamentalism and opposition to the Mubarak government, and attacking foreigners including non-Muslims while hurting Egypt's tourist trade was seen as serving both goals.

The most bloody attack prior to the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings was the November 1997 Luxor massacre, in which 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians died. In October 2004, a series of bomb attacks killed 34 people in Taba, also on the Sinai Peninsula. In April 2005 Cairo was hit by two days of terrorist violence, in which three foreign tourists were killed.

Unlike the October 2004 attacks, this attack does not appear to have been directed in particular against Israelis, for whom Sharm is a popular destination. However, one Israeli Arab was killed and another, Saneh Hussein, was injured.

References

ee also

*Suleiman Khater
*2006 Dahab bombings

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4709491.stm Toll climbs in Egyptian attacks]
* [http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-07-23T104409Z_01_N23649802_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-EGYPT-EXPLOSIONS-DC.XML Blasts kill 83 in Egyptian Red Sea resort] (Reuters)
* [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/752/fr4.htm Scores die in Sharm El-Sheikh car bombs] (Al-Ahram)

*Background
** [http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30601681.htm Attacks on tourist targets in Egypt, 1992–2005] (Reuters)
** [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E0CA247A-68EE-41A0-8691-DEA80F2E1668.htm Egypt's grim catalogue of tourist attacks] (Al Jazeera)
** [http://sandbox.blog-city.com/tentacles_in_sinai.htm Tentacles in Sinai] The nexus of smuggling, Islamism, and terrorism.