Israelis flee Egypt as bombs claim 28

BOMBS killed at least 28 people in Egyptian Red Sea resorts packed with Israeli tourists, buried dozens more and sent thousands fleeing home over the border. Israel said it suspected al-Qaida involvement.

The toll looked certain to rise on Friday. Israeli officials said 30 people were missing and their bodies were thought to lie in the rubble of the Taba Hilton, on Egypt's border with Israel, after a car bomb sheared off a 10-storey wing of the hotel.

The attack was followed by blasts at two backpacker beaches further south on the Sinai Peninsula, crowded with Israelis vacationing during a week-long Jewish holiday despite official warnings they might be targeted by Islamic militants.

The explosions were the first major attacks on tourists in Egypt since 58 foreigners were killed in Luxor in 1997.

At least 19 of the dead in Thursday's blasts were Israelis, an Israeli newspaper said. Six Egyptians were among the dead, Israel Radio reported, and one Russian was killed. Italian authorities said two Italian sisters were among the missing. Some 120 people were wounded as normally placid vacation spots were plunged into nightmares of smoke, blood and screams.

A truck loaded with explosives rammed into the lobby of the 430-room hotel. Moments later, a suicide bomber detonated another blast near the swimming pool.

"There were a lot of people on the ground. We couldn't tell in the chaos if they were dead or not," said Israeli Ronit Levi, who had been a hotel guest.

Firefighters said the ceiling of the hotel dining room, where tables were set for dinner, had collapsed and that bodies could be seen under rubble in the ruins of the hotel.

"We are still searching for life. We are digging almost by hand," Israeli Major General Yair Naveh told reporters. "Until we reach the bottom of the hotel we may still find people."

Thousands of dazed, frightened holidaymakers streamed back over the border into Israel, among them an unconscious child and a young woman, her arm wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage.

"There will be will be no compromising with terror. It will be fought with every means possible without restraint," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed during an emergency cabinet meeting.

In the aftermath, Israel complained of delays in Egyptian approval for heavy equipment to be brought over the border for the search. But a compromise was reached and Israeli cranes moved in and began lifting massive pieces of broken concrete.

A previously unknown pro-al-Qaida Islamist group called Islamic Tawhid Brigades claimed responsibility for the blast on a website. The claim, along with one from another unknown group calling itself the World Islamist Group, could not be verified. But Israel's deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim told reporters the attack appeared to be the work of "international terror groups like al-Qaida or branches of it".