10 arrested in Egypt bombings that killed 24

DAHAB, Egypt — Egyptian authorities, already struggling with elusive terror cells in the rugged Sinai Peninsula, moved quickly Tuesday — arresting 10 men in the triple bombings that ripped apart a crowded resort town, killing 24 on a warm, tranquil holiday evening.

Radical Muslim groups moved just as rapidly to distance themselves from the Dahab attacks.

The leader of Egypt's banned Muslim brotherhood condemned the bombings as "aggression on human souls created by God." The militant Palestinian Hamas organization called them a "criminal attack which is against all human values."

Many frightened tourists fled the area after Monday's blast, which bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida and was the third terrorist attack on a Sinai resort in less than two years to coincide with a national holiday.

Egyptian authorities — despite sweeps by thousands of troops and hundreds of arrests after the earlier attacks — appeared increasingly frustrated by the ease with which terrorists continue to hit the tourism industry that is so important to the Sinai Peninsula. It brought in $6.4 billion in 2005 and is the top source of foreign currency.

"This incident is addressed to the whole of Egypt, there is no reason for it other than an attempt to destroy the economy of Egypt by attacking tourism," Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said as he visited blast victims in a hospital.

President Hosni Mubarak, who oversees a stagnant economy with unemployment rising in lockstep with the population explosion, called the attack a "sinful terrorist action." Arabs throughout the Middle East also expressed outrage, signaling a growing backlash against al-Qaida-linked groups as fellow Muslims increasingly bear the terrorism brunt. Of the 24 dead in Dahab, 21 were Egyptians.

The attacks came one day after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to support al-Qaida in what he called a war against Islam.

Radical Muslim groups like Hamas have been careful to say that their attacks are aimed only against Israel, and not part of a worldwide radical Islamic jihad.

"I don't think these people care" if Muslims or Arabs are killed. "They'll carry on at any price," music teacher Lara Darwazah, 31, said in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The blasts were so powerful that police divers worked Tuesday to retrieve body parts from the shallow waters of the sea, as workers swept shards of glass from the streets. At one spot near the beach, two black sandals lay in a pool of blood on a wooden footbridge.