CAIRO, 1 May 2005 — At least three people were killed in twin attacks targeting tourists here yesterday. A suicide bomber died in the blast which injured seven people near a downtown museum while his sister and fiancée committed suicide after opening fire at a tourist bus, witnesses and officials said.
A statement by the Interior Ministry said three Egyptians, an Israeli couple, one Italian woman and a Swedish tourist were wounded in the blast behind 6th of October Bridge.
“They are in stable condition in hospital, but the 28-year-old Swedish doctor is badly injured and has nails all over the left side of his body, particularly his face,” said Health Minister Muhammad Awad Tageddin.
Cairo’s Security Director Nabil Al-Ezabi told Arab News that the bombing was a suicide operation carried out by 45-year-old Ihab Yousri Yassin, a fugitive member of the group which planned the April 7 bombing which killed three tourists in the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar. The Interior Ministry statement said that while being pursued Yassin had jumped from the bridge into the square below, where he detonated the bomb. “They found his papers, and the identity card of the perpetrator of the Khan Al-Khalili (bazaar) incident,” the statement said.
At the scene of the blast, behind the museum, the remains of the body could be seen in a pool of blood covered with newspapers and a red blanket. His head was blown apart but the rest of the body seemed to be intact. The man was wearing a light blue shirt and black trousers. Eyewitnesses said the minute the explosion occurred they saw several tourists running away with nails in their bodies. “We heard a big explosion and people were screaming and when we looked we saw at least five foreigners running with blood all over their faces and hands,” said Sayyed Muhammad, a 40-year-old Egyptian.
Egyptian security officials told Arab News that the perpetrator used a very crude type of device consisting of powder and nails that are often used in one-person operations. They added that it is similar to the one used at the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar bombing earlier this month.
At Al-Qasr Al-Aini Hospital, where some of the wounded were transferred, doctors said they found nails in the bodies of the injured.
“We have at least three people with nails in their faces and hands...the Swedish man, for instance, had all his left side severely wounded and full of nails,” said Khaled Ahmad, a doctor at the hospital. “He will have an operation today so that we can get all the nails out of his body.”
Almost 90 minutes after the blast, two veiled women in their twenties opened fire on a tourist bus in southern Cairo near Salah Eddin Citadel, a popular tourist destination.
“They fired three shots but missed, and coincidentally there was a police patrol car passing by so the women panicked and shot themselves,” said Al-Ezabi. “One died immediately and the other died a couple of hours after reaching the hospital,” Al-Ezabi explained.
The Interior Ministry identified one of the women as Nagaat Yousri Yassin, the sister of the bomber, while the other Eman Ibrahim Khamis was his fiancee.
Sources said the twin attacks could be a revenge for the death of the cousin of an Egyptian man wanted in connection with the Khan Al-Khalili bombing who died in police custody.
Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the head of Al-Azhar, one of the oldest and most prominent Muslim scholarly institutions, immediately condemned the two attacks as “criminal and terrorist.”
“Islam rejects any kind of terrorist act or sabotage that terrorizes people,” he said in a statement.
A group calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in a statement posted on a web forum used by 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 of thousands of people.
Another group, the Mujahedeen of Egypt said their people carried out the attacks in response to the American aggression in Iraq and the violence in Palestine.
Some tourists interviewed by Arab News said that the blast would not stop them from paying visits to the country.
“What has just happened can occur anywhere in the world and it does not mean that Egypt is becoming less safe...it even happens in London,” said Thomas Julian who was at the garden of the Egyptian museum with his wife when the bombing took place.
“I was impressed by the way Egyptian security agencies dealt with the situation and how they organized our departure from the museum and therefore we did not panic,” he told Arab News.
