Three held for Cairo blast
2005-04-10 20:26
Cairo - Egyptian security forces have arrested three Islamists suspected of planning last week's suicide bombing in a Cairo bazaar, an interior ministry source said on Sunday.
The source added that the suicide bomber who carried out the attack in which two French nationals and an American died was identified as an Egyptian from the Nile Delta region of Qaliobya, north of Cairo.
The suicide bomber planned the attack along with the three accomplices, it said.
The trio, who are said to have "Islamist tendencies and motivations" have already appeared before an investigating magistrate.
Police are still examining the remains of the suicide bomber's body.
A preliminary report into the blast showed that the crude bomb had been made from gunpowder and nails. Prosecutors have described the attack as an "isolated act".
The blast was widely condemned and revived old fears of a fresh wave of terror attacks in Egypt, whose economy is heavily reliant on tourism.
An internet statement of which the authenticity could not be verified issued on Friday by a previously unknown group called the Islamic Brigades of Pride in Egypt said it carried out the attack.
Egyptian fundamentalist group Jamaa Islamiya, which was behind a string of deadly attacks against foreigners in the 1990s, has condemned the attack as irresponsible.