Egypt: Blast at Khan el-Khalili Bazaar

By Larry Habegger | Permalink | No Comments | February 26th, 2009 | Trackback

A crude homemade bomb exploded in front of the Hussein Mosque and the Khan el-Khalili bazaar at Hussein Square Feb. 22, killing one French student and injuring 21 others. A second bomb failed to explode and was disposed of by police. The Hussein Mosque is one of Cairo’s most revered places of worship and the Khan el-Khalili bazaar is a site popular with both tourists and locals that dates back to 1382. Police believe the bombing was the work of a small or informal criminal cell possibly angry at Egypt’s closing of its border with Gaza during the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas. The bombing marked the first attack targeting tourists in Egypt in three years; the Khan el-Khalili bazaar was also the site of a suicide bombing in 2005 that killed one American and two French tourists. Egyptian Islamic groups have condemned the bombing, including the mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and al-Gamma al-Islamiya, a formerly militant group that years ago renounced violence.

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