Cairo Explosion Near Mosque Kills French Tourist, Injures 22
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Cairo Explosion Near Mosque Kills French Tourist, Injures 22
Breaking news on UK Sky TV, they are reporting a blast in the tourist area of Cairo, four people injured
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(AP) Egyptian police say a bomb detonated outside a historic Cairo mosque in the crowded bazaar area frequented by tourists, wounding at least eight people.
Blood stains could be seen in the front courtyard of Hussein mosque, next to the famed Khan el-Khalili bazaar in Islamic Cairo.
Riot police had cordoned off the area and sniffer dogs could be seen as worshippers were being evacuated.
A security official said police were attempting to defuse a second bomb.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Source: CBS Interactive Inc
Blood stains could be seen in the front courtyard of Hussein mosque, next to the famed Khan el-Khalili bazaar in Islamic Cairo.
Riot police had cordoned off the area and sniffer dogs could be seen as worshippers were being evacuated.
A security official said police were attempting to defuse a second bomb.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Source: CBS Interactive Inc
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DJKeefy
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By Daniel Williams and Mahmoud Kassem
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- A French tourist was killed and 22 people were injured in an explosion near a cafe adjacent to the Hussein mosque in Cairo, the first such fatal attack on foreign visitors in the Egyptian capital since April 2005.
Among those injured in the explosion were 10 French tourists, a German and three Saudi Arabians, the Health Ministry said in a statement yesterday. The injured have been transported to nearby hospitals, including a French national who will need surgery, the statement said. The French tourist killed was a woman, it said.
Two objects were thrown from the Al-Hussein hotel by two women into a street lined with cafes and shops in medieval Cairo that houses Al-Azhar university, the second-oldest university in the world and the highest authority on Sunni Islam, state-run Nile News television said. One of the devices failed to detonate, Nile News reported.
The area is popular with tourists who walk around the many tight streets filled with shops that sell trinkets and spices.
The mufti of Al-Azhar university, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, condemned the attacks, according to a statement carried by the country’s official Middle East News Agency. “The perpetrators of this act have betrayed their religion,” he said.
Egypt’s Cabinet spokesman, Magdy Rady, confirmed yesterday’s attack, which took place around 7:30 p.m. local time. Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast, and police cordoned off the plaza in front of the Hussein mosque. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
2005 Cairo Attack
The last deadly bomb assault against tourists in Cairo was in April 2005, when attacks in the Khan el-Khalili area near the Hussein mosque left a French couple and an American dead.
In July 2005, 64 people died in the bombings of hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh, the biggest terror attack on tourists in Egypt. Sinai-based terror group Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad carried out the Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks, according to the Interior Ministry.
Three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Red Sea resort city of Dahab April 24 in 2006, killing 18 people. Two days later, two suicide bombers attacked security forces in the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing only themselves.
Egypt’s main Islamic militant groups, which were seeking to topple President Hosni Mubarak’s secular regime, carried out attacks on police and tourists in the 1990s. The groups declared a cease-fire soon after a 1997 attack in Luxor that killed 58 foreign tourists and which all but wiped out the country’s tourism industry. Tourism has since recovered to record levels.
Tourism is Egypt’s largest source of foreign currency with $11 billion last year, according to the tourism ministry. Some 12.8 million visitors arrived in Egypt in 2008. The industry accounts for 11.3 percent of gross domestic product and employs 13 percent of the workforce.
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- A French tourist was killed and 22 people were injured in an explosion near a cafe adjacent to the Hussein mosque in Cairo, the first such fatal attack on foreign visitors in the Egyptian capital since April 2005.
Among those injured in the explosion were 10 French tourists, a German and three Saudi Arabians, the Health Ministry said in a statement yesterday. The injured have been transported to nearby hospitals, including a French national who will need surgery, the statement said. The French tourist killed was a woman, it said.
Two objects were thrown from the Al-Hussein hotel by two women into a street lined with cafes and shops in medieval Cairo that houses Al-Azhar university, the second-oldest university in the world and the highest authority on Sunni Islam, state-run Nile News television said. One of the devices failed to detonate, Nile News reported.
The area is popular with tourists who walk around the many tight streets filled with shops that sell trinkets and spices.
The mufti of Al-Azhar university, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, condemned the attacks, according to a statement carried by the country’s official Middle East News Agency. “The perpetrators of this act have betrayed their religion,” he said.
Egypt’s Cabinet spokesman, Magdy Rady, confirmed yesterday’s attack, which took place around 7:30 p.m. local time. Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast, and police cordoned off the plaza in front of the Hussein mosque. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
2005 Cairo Attack
The last deadly bomb assault against tourists in Cairo was in April 2005, when attacks in the Khan el-Khalili area near the Hussein mosque left a French couple and an American dead.
In July 2005, 64 people died in the bombings of hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh, the biggest terror attack on tourists in Egypt. Sinai-based terror group Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad carried out the Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks, according to the Interior Ministry.
Three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Red Sea resort city of Dahab April 24 in 2006, killing 18 people. Two days later, two suicide bombers attacked security forces in the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing only themselves.
Egypt’s main Islamic militant groups, which were seeking to topple President Hosni Mubarak’s secular regime, carried out attacks on police and tourists in the 1990s. The groups declared a cease-fire soon after a 1997 attack in Luxor that killed 58 foreign tourists and which all but wiped out the country’s tourism industry. Tourism has since recovered to record levels.
Tourism is Egypt’s largest source of foreign currency with $11 billion last year, according to the tourism ministry. Some 12.8 million visitors arrived in Egypt in 2008. The industry accounts for 11.3 percent of gross domestic product and employs 13 percent of the workforce.