By Ming Jinwei, Yang Wenjing

    CAIRO, April 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Three people were killed and atleast seven others injured on Saturday in two separate attackstargeting tourists in Cairo, raising fears of more Islamic extremeactivities in Egypt.

    The Saturday attacks, in which a bomber carried out a suicidemission in downtown Cairo and two women shooters fired at a touristbus in south Cairo, were the second wave of extremist attacks inthe capital in less than a month.

    On April 7, a suicide bombing killed four people, including 3foreign tourists, in a Bazaar in downtown Cairo.

    The above attacks were also the third wave of extreme activitieswitnessed in Egypt since last October when a string of bombingsrocked Sinai resorts, killing 34 people.

    "We're talking about three waves of attacks in just less thanseven months," said Saber Rabie, an Arab analyst. "The trend isalarming."

    Between 1992-1997, Islamic extremists started an insurgencyaimed at overthrowing the government led by President Hosni Mubarakand launched a string of attacks against foreign tourists. They hadhoped to weaken the national economy by scaring foreigners awayfrom the country.

    Those five years witnessed numerous killings of foreign touristsby the Islamic extremists in Cairo and at spots of touristattraction across the country. A large number of Egyptians alsofell victim to the attacks.

    The chain of terror culminated in November 1997 when Islamicmilitants killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians in anattack at the Pharaonic Temple of Hatshepsut outside Luxor insouthern Egypt, shocking both Egypt and the internationalcommunity.

    The notorious attack later became known as the "Massacre inLuxor" and has since served as a rallying call for the Egyptians tostrike back against what they call "cowardly criminals."

    Late Saturday, an Interior Ministry statement identified theperpetrator of Saturday's bombing as Ehab Yousri Yassin, who setoff the explosives he was carrying and jumped from the Sixth ofOctober Bridge over Abdel Moneim Riyadh square while pursued bypolice.

    The blast took place near a bus station behind the EgyptianMuseum which is a famed tourist site.

    The man was wanted by police as a suspect in an April 7 bombattack targeting foreigners near a tourist bazaar in old Cairowhich killed four people including three foreigners, the statementadded.

    Less than two hours of the first blast, the second incidentoccurred in Cairo's El Sayyeda Aisha area, very close to the famedhistoric site of Citadel, during which two women attackers werekilled in their exchange of fire with police, while they intendedto open fire on a tourist bus.

    The Interior Ministry identified the two women as Ehab YousriYassin's sister and girlfriend, Nagat Yousri Yassin and ImanIbrahim Khamis.

    "Nagat Yousri Yassin killed herself and shot her friend ImanIbrahim Khamis in Saida Aisha area, south Cairo," who died of herwounds at hospital later, the ministry said, quoted by the officialMENA news agency.

    Soon after the two attacks, two Islamist groups claimedresponsibility for the incidents in internet statements.

    In a statement, the first group calling itself the Brigades of the Martyr Abdullah Azzam said the attacks were in revenge for thedeaths of those who carried out bombings last year in Egypt's SinaiPeninsula and for the subsequent arrests of thousands of people.

    Another group calling itself the Mujahideen of Egypt alsoclaimed for the responsibility in a website statement.

    However, neither statement's authenticity could be verified.Enditem