Blast hits outside air base in Egypt
(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-26 19:13
An explosion Wednesday rocked an area just outside a Sinai Peninsula base
that houses a multinational peacekeeping force made up mostly of Canadian
soldiers — two days after triple blasts hit a nearby Sinai tourist resort. Some
people were injured, Egyptian police said.
It was not immediately clear if those wounded were soldiers attached to the
force, or others. A spokesman for the Multinational Force and Observers in Cairo
refused to immediately comment on the blast.
The force was set up as part of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in
1981 that led to Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai. It is partially paid for by
the U.S. and has U.S. advisers, although its troops are drawn from several
countries, including Canada, the United States and others.
The blast hit outside the air base where the multinational force is
headquartered in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. It came two days
after a Monday night bomb killed at least 24 people at the popular southern
Sinai resort of Dahab.
The Sinai — Egypt's desert peninsula that abuts Israel and separates the
Mediterranean from the Red Sea — has been wracked by a series of Islamic
extremist bombings in the last year and a half.
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