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Cairo Bomb Blast Kills French Tourist Near Old Mosque

Other News Materials 23 February 2009 00:19 (UTC +04:00)

At least one French tourist was killed and 19 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 capital since April 2005, Bloomberg reported.

Among those injured in the explosion were 10 French tourists and a German, the Health Ministry said in a statement today. The injured have been transported to nearby hospitals, the statement said.

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 Cabinet spokesman, Magdy Rady, confirmed today'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. 

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