Blast hits air base in Egypt

An explosion has rocked an area just outside a Sinai Peninsula base that houses a multi-national peacekeeping force, just 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, made up mostly of Canadian soldiers, or others.

A spokesman for the Multi-national Force and Observers in Cairo refused to 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 US and has US 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 multi-national force is headquartered in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

It came two days after Monday night’s bombs 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 past 18 months.