Terrorist attack Egypt's tourist economy--again

Independent:

The spectre of Islamist attacks returned to haunt Egypt’s security services last night after four people, at least one of whom was a foreign tourist, were killed when a bomb ripped through the Khan el-Khalili bazaar in Cairo. A French woman was among the dead, according to Egyptian police, while 11 French, three Germans and several Egyptians were among up to 18 others who were injured.

“I was praying and there was a big boom and people started panicking and rushing out of the mosque, then police came and sealed the main door, evacuating us out of the back,” Mohammed Abdel Azim, who had been worshipping in the nearby Hussein Mosque, told the Associated Press. “We thought that Egypt was the only country safe from bombings.”

Khan el-Khalili is a major souk in Cairo’s old city and one of the capital’s big tourist attractions. Witnesses reported seeing blood on the marble paving slabs in front of the mosque. Some injuries may have been caused by shards of marble and stone. Reporters at the scene described chaos and confusion as riot police cordoned off the area and evacuated the mosque.

Police said the bomb, which according to some reports was thrown from a motorcycle, was probably home-made. They also said they safely detonated a second smaller explosive device roughly an hour after the first blast in the same area.

The Khan el-Khalili bazaar last came under attack in April 2005. On that occasion a suicide bomber killed two French visitors and an American. Tourist areas in Egypt have come under sporadic attack from Islamist militants in recent years. In 2005, more than 60 people, many of them foreigners, were killed in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh while other holiday spots in the Sinai Peninsula have also been targeted by suicide bombers.

Egypt waged a long struggle against Islamist militant groups who targeted foreign tourists throughout the 1990s....

...

There is a common theme here with al Qaeda's attacks on US commerce in order to harm the economy. Tourist are a big source of income for Egypt so this is an attack meant to weaken the country and make it more vulnerable to a takeover by the Islamic religious bigots. Several of the attacks in the 90s were by a group led by Zawahiri before he joined with bin Laden.