Cairo, 26 April (AKI) - Two suicide bombers on Wednesday struck outside a military base in el Gorah housing multinational peacekeepers south of the Rafah border crossing to Gaza, on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, reports said, citing Egyptian police. At least two peacekeepers - a New Zealander and a Norwegian - with the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) independent peacekeeping force were reportedly injured in the blast along with two Egyptian policemen. The incident comes two days after a terrorist attack on the Egyptian resort town of Dahab, which killed at least 18 and wounded scores.The first blast was reported just outside the air base where the multinational force is headquartered in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, 10 miles from the Israeli border near Rafah. The suicide bomber was reportedly on foot and wounded two peacekeepers, the governor of northern Sinai Ahmed Abdel Hamid told Egyptian television. The second attacker drove his bicycle into the path of an oncoming police car, wounding two officers. Both bombers reportedly died in the blasts.
The MFO force has been stationed in Sinai since 1982, following the Egypt-Israeli peace deal. The force's biggest contingent is US soldiers, though it includes a significant Canadian deployment as well as soldiers from other nations. It has another base in southern Sinai. The peninsula has been rocked by a number of Islamic extremist attacks in the past year and a half.