NYT/AP: Two Dead in Bombing at Tourist Area in Cairo

[DeepModem Mom]

Two Dead in Bombing at Tourist Area in Cairo
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: April 7, 2005


CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An explosion apparently set off by a man on a motorcycle hit an outdoor bazaar popular with tourists in Cairo's Old City on Thursday, killing two people, including a French woman, and wounding at least 19 others, officials said.

The wounded were 10 Egyptians, two Americans, two Turks, two Italians, two French people and one Briton, said Egyptian deputy health minister Ahmed Adel. A French woman and another person were confirmed killed.

Adel had said one of the victims was an American, but Egypt's Health Minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin later said the nationality had not yet been determined because the body had been severely mutilated in the explosion.

It appeared to be the first attack targeting tourists in the Egyptian capital in more than seven years. Egypt put down a campaign of violence in the 1990s by Islamic militants who frequently targeted foreigners in their bid to bring down the government....

***

The blast went off near an organized tour group in the al-Moski bazaar, a maze of narrow alleys with shops selling jewelry, souvenirs and clothes near the main tourist bazaar of Khan al-Khalili....


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Egypt-Blast.html

[coffeenap]

1. Another link from CBC

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050407/w040780.html

[onager]

2. I was just there in January...

In fact, I went to that very marketplace in "an organized tour group."

We had an armed, plain-clothes guard from the Tourism Police with our group at all times. This is currently a requirement by the Egyptian government, if 2 or more Americans are in a tour group. (You can turn down the armed guard, but you have to sign a waiver absolving the government if anything happens.)

Of course, an armed guard won't do any good for this kind of attack.

[DeaconBlues]

3. one of the dead was an American

Thank God that Bush has put an end to all terrorism! :sarcasm:

[allemand]

4. BBC: US citizen among Cairo blast dead

A US citizen has died from wounds sustained in Thursday's bomb blast in Cairo, the US in Egypt announced. (...)

There is no indication yet of who might have been behind the bombing. US embassy official Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm said several US citizens were among those injured in the attack, in a packed bazaar area in Cairo's old city. (...)

Political change

Correspondents say Egypt may be entering a period of political change. (...)

Thousands of Egyptian university students, mostly supporters of the banned Islamic Brotherhood, demonstrated earlier this week against the government, in the largest such protest yet to be staged.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4423423.stm

In an interview with Xinhua, political analyst Azzem Tarek noted that Thursday's blast was a result of regional instability and intensified domestic contradiction. (...) Egypt's economy is experiencing a hard period of times witnessed by sluggish development and high unemployment rate in addition to price hikes. In the past nine months, prices have jumped up by more than 30 percent.
    Such sluggish economy has triggered off the long-accumulated social problems, said Tarek.
    Since last December, the Egyptian opposition parties have organized several anti-government demonstrations, demanding the political reform. Such activities are becoming more and more frequent, arousing concerns over the country's stability.
    Should the Egyptian government fail to find out an appropriate solution to the economic problem, the country will face serious social crisis, Tarek said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/08/content_2803528.htm

Juan Cole writes:

The bombing was likey the work of Ayman al-Zawahiri's al-Jihad al-Islami, which is part of al-Qaeda. That Bush wimped out on destroying Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri and instead poured $300 billion into the Iraq quagmire has left the jihadis free to plot and act. Egypt gets billions of dollars every year in revenue from tourism, which helps prop up the Egyptian government. The al-Jihad al-Islami wants to overthrow the Egyptian government, so it is trying to deprive it of the tourist revenue. The tactic works, but it has the disadvantage of making all the other Egyptians, who depend on the tourist revenue, angry at the jihadis and unwilling to support them politically.
http://juancole.com/

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks, allemand --- this sentence caught my eye particularly:

"That Bush wimped out on destroying Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri and instead poured $300 billion into the Iraq quagmire has left the jihadis free to plot and act."