Tourists targeted in Egypt attacks

By David Chazan
BBC News

Naama Bay is frequented almost exclusively by tourists

Egypt has suffered a number of attacks against tourist targets in the past, but this is the first time Sharm el-Sheikh and nearby Naama Bay have been hit by bomb attacks.

The two resorts at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula are popular with

European and Egyptian tourists.

They have been considered relatively safe despite bombings last October at the other end of Sinai, near Egypt's northern border with Israel.

Those attacks killed at least 34 people in resorts frequented by many Israeli visitors.

Many international conferences have been held in Sharm el-Sheikh. In February, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas there.

But elsewhere in Egypt there have been a number of attacks against foreigners.

An American and two French people were killed in a suspected suicide bombing at a bazaar in Cairo's Old City in April.

And in 1997, gunmen killed 58 tourists and four Egyptians at an ancient temple in Luxor, in the south of the country.

A month earlier nine German tourists and their Egyptian bus driver were killed in an attack in Cairo.

The previous year, 18 Greek tourists were shot dead near the Pyramids.