CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Two suicide bombers struck just near a Multinational Peacekeeping forces base in the Sinai near the Gaza border Wednesday. The string of explosions rattled Egypt just two days after terrorists exploded three bombs at a Sinai beach resort, killing 24 people, mostly Egyptians.
A report Wednesday that a third blast hit a police checkpoint in the north of the country was incorrect, the Interior Ministry said.
Security officials said the suicide attackers died in the strike near the peacekeeping base, and there were conflicting reports about wounded. It was not immediately known if there were casualties in the Nile Delta explosion or if it had truly happened. Separate accounts said there was a gunfight in the region.
Maj. Nathan Bond, a spokesman for MFO confirmed there had been two separate suicide attacks, one targeting a MFO vehicle and a second one targeting an Egyptian security vehicle. He said there were no peacekeepers hurt in the attack, about 3 miles south of the Rafa border crossing to Gaza.
But Egyptian security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said one New Zealander and one Norwegian were hurt, along with four Egyptian policemen.
Lt. Col. Mike Shatford, a spokesman for New Zealand's Defense Department told New Zealand Press Association that one New Zealand soldier was hurt but safe and back in his camp. He said he had no details on the soldier's injuries.
Norwegian armed forces spokesman Thom Knustad confirmed that one Norwegian officer was in a vehicle hit by the Sinai blast, but that the Norwegian military had reports that none of the four people traveling in the vehicle were injured.
"We have no reason to think that any Norwegian was injured," Knustad told the AP.
At about the same time and on the Gaza side of the border, three Palestinian security officers were injured in an exchange of fire with Palestinian militants who tried to ram an explosives-laden car into the main Israel-Gaza crossing, Palestinian security officials said.
The officers opened fire on the car as it approached the Palestinian side of the Karni crossing, the officials said. Unidentified militants in the car returned fire, injuring the three officers. It was not immediately clear what happened to the militants but the car did not explode, witnesses said.
The strike on the multinational force in Sinai was the second in less than a year. In August, a crude roadside bomb blasted a vehicle belonging to peacekeepers, lightly wounding two Canadians.
The Multinational Force and Observers, whose 1,800 members monitor the 1979 Egypt-Israeli peace deal.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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