Tourists hit in Cairo bombing
2005-04-30 16:36
Cairo ? An Egyptian was killed on Saturday and two Israelis, an Italian, a Russian and four Egyptians were wounded, some of them seriously, when a bomb was thrown from a bridge behind the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, police said.
It was unclear whether the fatality was an innocent victim or a suicide bomber.
There were conflicting reports as to whether the bomb was thrown from a bridge or whether a bomber had jumped with it.
Fire trucks rushed to the scene and a police cordon was thrown up around the site, at General Abdul Munem Riyadh Square and close to the east bank of the Nile River, the sources added.
The blast occurred at 4pm (1300 GMT) in a crowded bus terminal between the Ramses Hilton and the Egyptian Museum.
This was the second attack on tourists in Egypt in less than a month.
On April 7, a bomb blast rocked a central Cairo bazaar popular with tourists, killing two French citizens, a US national and the bomber.
Egyptian authorities have arrested at least nine people in connection with the attack on the Khan el-Khalili market, which is next to the world-famous Al-Azhar University, a great seat of Sunni Muslim scholarship.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Islamic Brigades of Pride in Egypt said it carried out the attack.
The attack was "to avenge our brothers, martyrs of injustice and detainees" and to prove to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who "speaks of sleeper cells, that there are also active mujahedeen working against him and his likes," a statement said.
Egypt is a hugely popular destination for tourists owing to its monuments, Nile cruises and Red Sea coast which have been rocked by major attacks against foreign targets in recent years.
Last October, at least 34 people, including several Israeli tourists, were killed in triple bomb attacks on the Hilton hotel Taba and two nearby resorts in the Sinai peninsula. More than 10 were wounded.
The Egyptian economy is heavily dependent on tourism and has been severely hit by previous attacks.