lucky wilbury
05-01-2005, 01:03 PM
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=466502005
Tourists hurt as terrorist family wages war in Cairo's busy streets
KATE FOSTER
kfoster@scotlandonsunday.com
POPULAR tourist areas of the Egyptian capital Cairo were torn apart yesterday in separate terror attacks by members of the same family that left three dead and at least 10 others seriously injured.
The first assault came when a man blew himself up close to a five-star hotel and a bus station serving the Egyptian Museum.
The man was being chased in connection with a bombing three weeks ago when he jumped off a bridge and detonated the explosives he was carrying.
Egyptian authorities said the man was killed and seven others were injured.
Four foreign tourists - an Israeli couple in their mid-50s, a 28-year-old Swedish man and a 26-year-old Italian woman - were among the casualties.
Two hours later, two veiled women opened fire on a tourist bus in the Sayeda Aisha area of old Cairo. Three Egyptians were injured before both women killed themselves.
The female shooters were later identified as the sister and fiancée of the bomber.
In the wake of the attacks, residents panicked as rumours of a third terrorist atrocity spread.
The attacks are thought to be an part of an orchestrated attempt to damage Egypt’s tourism industry and economy.
Last night a group calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement posted on a website used by Islamic militants.
It 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. "The crimes you committed against the people of Sinai... will not pass lightly," said the statement addressed to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. "The time for your removal has come." The authenticity of the claim could not be verified.
The group - whose name refers to a Palestinian militant who worked alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before dying in 1989 - was one of several that claimed responsibility for the Sinai attacks last October that killed 34 people.
The Foreign Office has issued advice to British tourists of a "continuing threat" from terrorism throughout Egypt following the recent terror attacks.
More than half a million Britons visited the country last year, attracted by the chance to see some of the world’s most exotic sights, including the pyramids and the Nile.
The first blast happened close to the Egyptian Museum, which boasts the world’s largest collection of Ancient Egyptian antiquities and is a popular tourist destination.
Government officials identified the man killed in the explosion as Ehab Yousri Yassin. He was being pursued as a suspect in an April 7 bombing which targeted foreigners near a tourist bazaar.
Witnesses reported seeing the remains of his body covered with newspapers, beneath a bridge. The area was quickly cordoned off by police carrying semi-automatic rifles.
"I saw a very loud explosion after what looked like a man throwing a bomb down from the bridge," said Mohammed Hasan Mohammed, 45.
He said he saw two injured westerners being taken away for medical treatment.
Witnesses described seeing the Swedish man, who had reddish-blond hair, covered in blood from injuries to his face as he was lifted on to a stretcher.
Nearby, blood streamed down the left arm of a young woman, while the man sitting next to her appeared to have sustained leg injuries. Most of the injured were taken to the French Kasr al-Aini Hospital. Deputy director Dr Hafez Mohammed said they would be released within days.
Though the bus station is used almost exclusively by Egyptians, the area is between the Ramses Hilton hotel frequented by foreigners and the Egyptian Museum, one of the country’s main tourist sites.
Normally, the station is busy with people heading home from work in the mid-afternoon, but the blast happened on a holiday weekend.
"The explosion was caused by a very primitive bomb full of nails," said Egyptian health minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin.
"Most of the injuries were superficial caused by the destruction of the nails."
The second attack took place in medieval Islamic Cairo, an area rich with historic mosques and cemeteries. Two women opened fire on the tour bus as they followed it in a car. A police patrol returned fire before the women shot themselves.
The Egyptian interior ministry identified the women behind the shooting as Yassin’s sister Negat Yusri Yassin and his fiancée Iman Ibrahim Khamis, who were both in their 20s.
At the scene, a pistol and a black glove lay on the ground, amid blood and broken glass.
The attacks are just the latest in the vicinity of major Cairo tourist attractions in recent weeks. The bombings on April 7 at a Cairo bazaar killed two French tourists and an American. After the attack the Egyptian authorities stepped up their security operations, and claim to have broken up the terrorist cells responsible.
It shattered a period of relative calm in Egypt since the intense violence during the 1990s when Islamic insurgents mounted several attacks on tourists in a bid to cripple tourism and bring down the government.
In 1997, the lucrative tourism industry was thrown into crisis when gunmen opened fire on foreigners in central Cairo and at a site near the southern Egyptian city of Luxor.
A total of 68 people died in the two attacks. They were claimed by Jamaa Islamiya, the Egyptian fundamentalist group behind a string of deadly attacks against foreigners in the 1990s.
In October last year, triple bomb attacks on the Hilton Hotel Taba and two nearby resorts in the Sinai peninsula began a spate of fresh violence.
Experts believe this attack and those yesterday form part of a new campaign to ruin the tourism industry ahead of planned elections. The elections had been called in the wake of the war in Iraq, and are designed to show the country is becoming more democratic.
Tourism is the largest source of foreign income for the Egyptian authorities and they are keen to hold on to it.
David Capitanchik, a terrorism expert formerly of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said that the country was tightly controlled, with no secular opposition groups allowed.
"It looks like militants are restarting their campaign to attack tourists," he said.
"These attacks will be very worrying to the current government."
Tourists hurt as terrorist family wages war in Cairo's busy streets
KATE FOSTER
kfoster@scotlandonsunday.com
POPULAR tourist areas of the Egyptian capital Cairo were torn apart yesterday in separate terror attacks by members of the same family that left three dead and at least 10 others seriously injured.
The first assault came when a man blew himself up close to a five-star hotel and a bus station serving the Egyptian Museum.
The man was being chased in connection with a bombing three weeks ago when he jumped off a bridge and detonated the explosives he was carrying.
Egyptian authorities said the man was killed and seven others were injured.
Four foreign tourists - an Israeli couple in their mid-50s, a 28-year-old Swedish man and a 26-year-old Italian woman - were among the casualties.
Two hours later, two veiled women opened fire on a tourist bus in the Sayeda Aisha area of old Cairo. Three Egyptians were injured before both women killed themselves.
The female shooters were later identified as the sister and fiancée of the bomber.
In the wake of the attacks, residents panicked as rumours of a third terrorist atrocity spread.
The attacks are thought to be an part of an orchestrated attempt to damage Egypt’s tourism industry and economy.
Last night a group calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement posted on a website used by Islamic militants.
It 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. "The crimes you committed against the people of Sinai... will not pass lightly," said the statement addressed to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. "The time for your removal has come." The authenticity of the claim could not be verified.
The group - whose name refers to a Palestinian militant who worked alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before dying in 1989 - was one of several that claimed responsibility for the Sinai attacks last October that killed 34 people.
The Foreign Office has issued advice to British tourists of a "continuing threat" from terrorism throughout Egypt following the recent terror attacks.
More than half a million Britons visited the country last year, attracted by the chance to see some of the world’s most exotic sights, including the pyramids and the Nile.
The first blast happened close to the Egyptian Museum, which boasts the world’s largest collection of Ancient Egyptian antiquities and is a popular tourist destination.
Government officials identified the man killed in the explosion as Ehab Yousri Yassin. He was being pursued as a suspect in an April 7 bombing which targeted foreigners near a tourist bazaar.
Witnesses reported seeing the remains of his body covered with newspapers, beneath a bridge. The area was quickly cordoned off by police carrying semi-automatic rifles.
"I saw a very loud explosion after what looked like a man throwing a bomb down from the bridge," said Mohammed Hasan Mohammed, 45.
He said he saw two injured westerners being taken away for medical treatment.
Witnesses described seeing the Swedish man, who had reddish-blond hair, covered in blood from injuries to his face as he was lifted on to a stretcher.
Nearby, blood streamed down the left arm of a young woman, while the man sitting next to her appeared to have sustained leg injuries. Most of the injured were taken to the French Kasr al-Aini Hospital. Deputy director Dr Hafez Mohammed said they would be released within days.
Though the bus station is used almost exclusively by Egyptians, the area is between the Ramses Hilton hotel frequented by foreigners and the Egyptian Museum, one of the country’s main tourist sites.
Normally, the station is busy with people heading home from work in the mid-afternoon, but the blast happened on a holiday weekend.
"The explosion was caused by a very primitive bomb full of nails," said Egyptian health minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin.
"Most of the injuries were superficial caused by the destruction of the nails."
The second attack took place in medieval Islamic Cairo, an area rich with historic mosques and cemeteries. Two women opened fire on the tour bus as they followed it in a car. A police patrol returned fire before the women shot themselves.
The Egyptian interior ministry identified the women behind the shooting as Yassin’s sister Negat Yusri Yassin and his fiancée Iman Ibrahim Khamis, who were both in their 20s.
At the scene, a pistol and a black glove lay on the ground, amid blood and broken glass.
The attacks are just the latest in the vicinity of major Cairo tourist attractions in recent weeks. The bombings on April 7 at a Cairo bazaar killed two French tourists and an American. After the attack the Egyptian authorities stepped up their security operations, and claim to have broken up the terrorist cells responsible.
It shattered a period of relative calm in Egypt since the intense violence during the 1990s when Islamic insurgents mounted several attacks on tourists in a bid to cripple tourism and bring down the government.
In 1997, the lucrative tourism industry was thrown into crisis when gunmen opened fire on foreigners in central Cairo and at a site near the southern Egyptian city of Luxor.
A total of 68 people died in the two attacks. They were claimed by Jamaa Islamiya, the Egyptian fundamentalist group behind a string of deadly attacks against foreigners in the 1990s.
In October last year, triple bomb attacks on the Hilton Hotel Taba and two nearby resorts in the Sinai peninsula began a spate of fresh violence.
Experts believe this attack and those yesterday form part of a new campaign to ruin the tourism industry ahead of planned elections. The elections had been called in the wake of the war in Iraq, and are designed to show the country is becoming more democratic.
Tourism is the largest source of foreign income for the Egyptian authorities and they are keen to hold on to it.
David Capitanchik, a terrorism expert formerly of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said that the country was tightly controlled, with no secular opposition groups allowed.
"It looks like militants are restarting their campaign to attack tourists," he said.
"These attacks will be very worrying to the current government."