Three people were killed and at least seven others injured on Saturday in two separate attacks targeting tourists in Cairo, raising fears of more Islamic extreme activities in Egypt.
The Saturday attacks, in which a
bomber carried out a suicide mission in downtown Cairo and two women shooters
fired at a tourist bus in south Cairo, were the second wave of extremist attacks
in the 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 activities witnessed in Egypt since last October when a
string of bombings rocked Sinai resorts, killing 34 people.
"We're talking about three waves of
attacks in just less than seven months," said Saber Rabie, an Arab analyst. "The
trend is alarming."
Between 1992-1997, Islamic
extremists started an insurgency aimed at overthrowing the government led by
President Hosni Mubarak and launched a string of attacks against foreign
tourists. They had hoped to weaken the national economy by scaring foreigners
away from the country.
Those five years witnessed numerous
killings of foreign tourists by the Islamic extremists in Cairo and at spots of
tourist attraction across the country. A large number of Egyptians also fell
victim to the attacks.
The chain of terror culminated in
November 1997 when Islamic militants killed 58 foreign tourists and four
Egyptians in an attack at the Pharaonic Temple of Hatshepsut outside Luxor in
southern Egypt, shocking both Egypt and the international community.
The notorious attack later became
known as the "Massacre in Luxor" and has since served as a rallying call for the
Egyptians to strike back against what they call "cowardly criminals."
Late Saturday, an Interior Ministry
statement identified the perpetrator of Saturday's bombing as Ehab Yousri
Yassin, who setoff the explosives he was carrying and jumped from the Sixth of
October Bridge over Abdel Moneim Riyadh square while pursued by police.
The blast took place near a bus
station behind the Egyptian Museum which is a famed tourist site.
The man was wanted by police as a
suspect in an April 7 bomb attack targeting foreigners near a tourist bazaar in
old Cairo which killed four people including three foreigners, the statement
added.
Less than two hours of the first
blast, the second incident occurred in Cairo's El Sayyeda Aisha area, very close
to the famed historic site of Citadel, during which two women attackers were
killed in their exchange of fire with police, while they intended to open fire
on a tourist bus.
The Interior Ministry identified the
two women as Ehab Yousri Yassin'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 her wounds at hospital later, the ministry said, quoted by the official
MENA news agency.
Soon after the two attacks, two
Islamist groups claimed responsibility 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 the deaths of those who carried out bombings last year in Egypt's
Sinai Peninsula and for the subsequent arrests of thousands of people.
Another group calling itself the
Mujahideen of Egypt also claimed for the responsibility in a website statement.
However, neither statement's
authenticity could be verified. Enditem
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