2005 Sharm el-Sheikh bombings

2005 Sharm el-Sheikh bombings
Part of Terrorism in Egypt
Location	Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
Date	23 July 2005 01:15 am – 01:20 am (UTC+3)
Target	A market in downtown Sharm and the Ghazala Gardens hotel
Attack type	Suicide bombings
Deaths	64–88
Injured	~ 150
Perpetrators	Abdullah Azzam Brigades Bedouin militants

The 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh bombings were a series of terrorist attacks perpetrated by an Islamist organization on 23 July 2005 in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, located on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Eighty-eight people were killed as a result of the attacks, the majority of them Egyptians, and over 200 were injured, making the attack the deadliest terrorist action in Egypt's history.

The attack took place on Egypt's Revolution Day, a public holiday in Egypt, and was part of a strategy of hurting Egypt's economy by disrupting tourism, a major industry.

After the attacks, many arrests took place, especially of the Bedouin in the Sinai, who allegedly aided the attack, and Egypt started erecting a separation barrier around the city, cutting it off from possible attacks and the nearby Bedouin community.

Background

Historically, foreign tourists have been a common target of attacks since the early 1990s. Militants have typically been motivated by a combination of Qutbism 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 attacks was the November 1997 Luxor massacre, in which 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians died. The 2004 Sinai bombings killed 34 people in October in Taba, also on the Sinai Peninsula. In the April 2005 Cairo terrorist attacks three foreign tourists were killed.

Unlike the October 2004 Taba attacks, the Sharm el-Sheikh 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 was injured.

Explosions

The attacks took place in the early morning, at a time when many tourists and locals were still out at restaurants, cafés and bars. The first bomb blast took place at 1:15 am Egypt summer time (22:15 UTC) 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. The second bomb was hidden in a suitcase and exploded outside the Moevenpick Hotel, killing six tourists. 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 the blast.

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

Casualties

Sharm el-Sheikh is located on the coast of the Red Sea, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.

The official government toll a few days after the attacks was put at 64, but hospitals reported that 88 people had been killed. The majority of dead and injured were Egyptians. Among those killed were 11 Britons, two Germans, six Italians, four Turks, one Czech, one Israeli, and one American. Other casualties, dead and injured, included foreign visitors from France, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, and Spain.

The then UK prime minister, Tony Blair, holidays in Sharm el-Sheikh and it is reported to be his favourite holiday destination. Former Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak also has a holiday home in the region.

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.

The Egyptian government said that the bombers were Bedouin militants from the same group that carried out the 2004 Sinai bombings in Taba. Arrested suspects claimed to have been motivated by the War in Iraq.

See also

• 2006 Dahab bombings
• Suleiman Khater

External links

• Toll climbs in Egyptian attacks
• Blasts kill 83 in Egyptian Red Sea resort (Reuters)
• Scores die in Sharm El-Sheikh car bombs (Al-Ahram)
• Background
  • Attacks on tourist targets in Egypt, 1992–2005 (Reuters)
  • Egypt's grim catalogue of tourist attacks (Al Jazeera)
  • Tentacles in Sinai The nexus of smuggling, Islamism, and terrorism.