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Terrorist Ehab Yousri Yassin's attack in Cairo on Saturday injured at least ten people, among them two Israelis. (AP)
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| By israelinsider staff and partners May 1, 2005 |
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| A general view showing the site where Ehab Yousri Yassin threw the bomb, from the bridge to the street below. (AP) |
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Avital Smorazik, one of the two Israelis injured in the first of two terror attacks in Cairo on Saturday, spoke to Army Radio from her hospital bed in Cairo. She said her and her husband were well on the road to recovery, that the Egyptians were treating them well, and that several government ministers had come to visit them, including the mayor of Cairo, and the chief of police.
Benzion and Avital Smorazik of Haifa, both 55, were lightly wounded on Saturday in a terror bombing near a downtown museum in Cairo in which at least five other tourists and three Egyptians were also injured.
In a second attack two hours after the blast, two veiled women in a car opened fire at a tour bus.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Israel's consul in Cairo, Eyal Sisso, contacted Egyptian security officials immediately upon hearing reports of the wounded Israelis. Sisso spoke with the Smoraziks when they were on their way to the hospital, and met with them at the hospital to make sure they were properly cared for. He then contacted their family in Israel. Their son Elad, 21, said his father was lightly wounded by shrapnel and his mother was treated for shock. He added that they were both feeling good.
Israeli diplomatic officials said they did not believe the attack was aimed specifically at Israelis. "I cannot enter the heads of the terrorists, but in Egypt they have many reasons for attacking tourists that are not connected to Israel," an Israeli official said.
Israel's Foreign Ministry had reissued a general warning not to visit Egypt during Pessah, but did not have any specific information about an attack.
A group calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in a statement posted on a Web forum 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 of thousands of people.
The claim's authenticity could not be verified.
The bomb blast happened not far from a 5-star hotel and 100 meters behind the Egyptian Museum, near a bus station that is normally very busy but which luckily, happened to be less full at the time of the attack.
An Egyptian Interior Ministry statement identified the bomber as Ehab Yousri Yassin, and said he jumped from the bridge during a pursuit, setting off the explosive he was carrying. He was being chased as a suspect in the April 7 bombing near the Khan al-Khalili bazaar, it said. A ministry statement identified the two women in the shooting as the bomber's sister and his fiancee, Negat Yusri Yassin and Iman Ibrahim Khamis, both in their 20s. All three killed themselves in the attack.
"The explosion was caused by a very primitive bomb full of nails. Most of the injuries were superficial, caused by the destruction of the nails," said Egyptian Health Minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin.
Others wounded by the bomb included three Egyptians; a Swedish man, 28; his 26-year-old Italian fiance. According to Awad Tag Eddin, most of the injuries were superficial puncture wounds.
Swedish Spokesman Christian Carlsson said the Swede -- whose hands and face were injured in the explosion -- was undergoing surgery and his condition was not life threatening.
Dr. Hafez Mohammed, deputy director of the French Kasr al-Aini Hospital where several of the wounded were being treated, said all would be released within days.
After numerous brazen terror attacks during the 1990s, Egypt experienced a relative lull in such violence until October, when near simultaneous bomb blasts on two Sinai resorts killed 34 people. Then, less than a month ago, a suicide bomber targeted foreigners near a crowded Cairo bazaar.
The AP contributed to this report.
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