WORLD / Africa

3 more explosions strike in Egypt
(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-26 20:01

Two suicide bombers struck just outside a Multinational Peacekeeping forces base in the Sinai near the Gaza border Wednesday, and a separate blast hit a police checkpoint in the Nile Delta in the north of the country.


Egyptians demonstrate against violence in Dahab. Two peacekeepers from the Multinational Force and Observers based in Egypt's Sinai peninsula were wounded by an explosion. [AFP]

The string of explosions rattled Egypt just two days after terrorists exploded three bombs at a Sinai beach resort, killing 24 people, mostly Egyptians.

Security officials said the suicide attackers died in the strike on the peacekeeping base, and there were conflicting reports on the wounded. It was not immediately known if there were casualties in the Nile Delta explosion.

Egypt's official news agency confirmed the Sinai attack was a suicide bombing, and a spokesman for the Multinational Force and Observers said he did not believe any troops were hurt but was awaiting a final report.

Other security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said they believed at least one New Zealander and one Norwegian attached to the multinational force were wounded along with two Egyptian policemen.

The attackers hit outside the air base where the force is headquartered in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, just 10 miles from the border with Gaza.

The peacekeeping force was set up as part of the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that led to Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai. It is partially paid for by the United States and has U.S. advisers and soldiers attached to it, as well as soldiers from several other nations.

The Sinai ¡ª Egypt's desert peninsula that abuts Israel and separates the Mediterranean from the Red Sea ¡ª has been wracked by a series of Islamic extremist bombings in the last year and a half.

The multinational force also has a base in southern Sinai.