Regional, int'l condemnation of Cairo's al-Hussein blast

President Mubarak follows up incident, efforts to provide full care for wounded victims

Saudi Arabia denounces "criminal" incident, Saudi cabinet condemns "sinful" blast

Mubarak meets with Sudan's Bashir, warns of repercussions of ICC decision on situation in Darfur

French teenagers had finished a day touring Cairo's 650-year-old Khan el-Khalili bazaar, gathering in its main square to board a bus back to their hotel. Then the blast went off.

The explosion killed a 17-year-old girl with the group and wounded 24 other people, most of them fellow students. According to the government account released Monday, a bomb had been planted underneath a stone bench on which the girl was sitting.

The Sunday night blast was the first attack in three years targeting foreigners in Egypt, and it raised fears of a blow to the country's vital tourism industry, which is already suffering from the global economic downturn.

The attack shocked the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, hometown of the more than 40 high school students who were on a tour of Egypt. "We are faced with a dreadful drama," the suburb's mayor Patrick Balkany told France's RTL radio on Monday.

The teens had spent the day wandering Khan el-Khalili's labyrinth of narrow alleys. The market is usually packed with tourists and Egyptians who buy trinkets from shops selling everything from belly dance outfits to pharaonic statues, or drink tea and smoke waterpipes at the numerous cafes.

At 6:45 p.m., the students gathered in the square in front of one of Cairo's most revered shrines, the Hussein mosque, one of the students told The Associated Press.

"That was the last thing, that was our meeting point," she said, speaking outside the hotel, her right leg bandaged from her thigh to her toe because of shrapnel wounds.

The bandage was stained by blood around the ankle and the tall blond hopped on her good foot to get around. She declined to give her name or age to avoid publicity.

Pressed for details about the bombing, she said, "I have no idea, there was nothing but a boom and a light. I couldn't see anything."

The attack left blood splattered on the marble paving stones in front of the mosque. Government spokesman Magdy Radi said a second bomb was found soon after under a nearby bench and defused.

The wounded included 17 French, three Egyptians, three Saudis and a German tourist, Radi said, according to the state news agency MENA. At least 13 of the French students were injured, most of them lightly by shrapnel and flying glass. But three remained in intensive care in an Egyptian hospital Monday.

The rest of the French students returned home Monday, some of them suffering psychological shock from the "horror" of the experience, Balkany said.

Three people were detained for questioning in the attack, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Several experts on Islamic militants said the bombing may have been carried out by extremists angry at what some in the Arab world viewed as Egypt's failure to help Palestinians during Israel's devastating offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Islamic movements at Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said Sunday's attackers were likely small-scale militants provoked by Gaza. "We are now facing a new type of terrorism, what I call an individual type of terrorism," he said.

If so, that would make it similar to a 2005 blast in Khan el-Khalili, when an attacker set off a primitive bomb, killing himself, two French citizens and an American. That attack is believed to have been carried out by a small group of militants working alone.

Meanwhile, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud made a telephone call to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, condemning Sunday's terrorist attack in Cairo and wishing the injured prompt recovery.

During the conversation, the monarch expressed denunciation and condemnation of the terrorist incident which took place on Sunday in Cairo neighborhood of Al-Hussein, wishing the injured quick recovery and Egypt safety against any harm.

In a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA), an official source said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia strongly condemned this criminal act which targeted innocent and peaceful people, wishing the injured a speedy recovery and wishing the Arab Republic of Egypt and its brotherly people permanent security and stability.

The source pointed out that King Abdullah has been reassured about the health of the injured Saudis and has directed the Saudi embassy in Cairo to provide all necessary care and attention to them until their recovery.

Saudi Arabia and other nations in the Middle East on Monday joined France in condemning a deadly bombing at a famed Cairo bazaar that killed a French teenage tourist and wounded 25 people.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, whose had three nationals among those wounded in Sunday’s attack, ‘strongly condemned’ the bombing, the official SPA news agency said quoting an unidentified official.

Saudi Arabia also expressed its hope for stability and security in Egypt, a major tourist destination in the troubled Middle East which has been hit by a string of deadly attacks in recent years.

Egypt said it has arrested three over the bomb blast that ripped through a street lined with cafes and restaurants in Khan al-Khalili, a 14th century Cairo bazaar and one of the Egyptian capital’s main tourist attractions.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed ‘deep sorrow’ over the attack, while Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the French government ‘strongly condemns this criminal act whose blind violence shows its absurdity.’

The Syrian foreign ministry called the bombing a ‘terrorist attack.’

"Syria condemns the terrorist attack... Syria has always rejected these kinds of acts that are contrary to Arab morals," it said in a statement, in which it also expressed its solidarity with Egypt.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi also denounced the attack and said it served Israeli interests. ‘Iran condemns the terrorist bombing in a Cairo neighborhood. It considers it a suspicious act,’ Ghashghavi said.

‘Such blind acts only serve the purposes of the Zionist regime and is aimed to inflict harm to the historical centers which are respected by all divine religions.’

The head of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University—Sunni Islam’s highest religious authority—Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed al-Tantawi said the bombing ‘distorted the image of Islam.’

‘Those who carried out this criminal act are traitors to their own religion and their nation, and they are distorting the image of Islam which rejects terrorism and bans the killing of innocents,’ Tantawi said.

Egypt was plagued by a spate of deadly attacks on Westerners by Islamic militant groups in the 1990s that dealt a savage blow to the vital tourism sector, which raked in 11 billion dollars in revenue last year.

But Sunday’s violence was the first deadly attack on tourists in Cairo since a bombing in the same neighborhood killed two tourists and wounded 18 in 2005.

A series of bombings killed scores of people in Red Sea resorts on the Sinai Peninsula from 2004 to 2006 that were blamed on militants loyal to Al-Qaeda.

Egyptian police said Monday they had arrested three suspects over a bomb attack at a famed Cairo bazaar that killed a French teenager and wounded 25 people, most of them tourists. Sunday's attack was the first deadly violence since 2006 against Westerners in Egypt, where the tourism industry is a vital foreign-currency earner.

The bomb blast ripped through a square lined with cafes and restaurants in Khan al-Khalili, a market dating from the 14th century that is one of the Egyptian capital's main tourist attractions.

"Three people there were arrested on the scene as suspects after the attack," a police official said.

"Around 15 others are being questioned as witnesses," the official added.

There has been no claim of responsibility but analysts said the attack could have been the work of an isolated Islamist cell.

"This act highlights social and political unease but appears to be the work of an individual or a group acting in isolation," said Amr Shubaki, a researcher at the Al-Ahram center of strategic studies.

However, General Fouad Allam, former head of the state security service, warned that the attack could herald "a new wave of terrorism in Egypt," spurred by the global financial crisis and the region's problems.

The dead 17-year-old French girl was part of a tour group of 54 teenagers from the Paris region who were on a trip to buy souvenirs in the market before heading home on Monday.

Many of the wounded were French students. Most have been flown home but three remain in hospital, officials said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he hoped the three could return to France on a hospital aircraft on Tuesday.

"There was a very powerful blast, then screams and blood. We all started running," said Romy Janiw, 28, one of the adults accompanying the teenagers.

The bombing in the fabled bazaar was the first deadly attack on tourists in Cairo since a bombing in the same neighborhood killed two tourists and wounded 18 in 2005.

A series of bombings from 2004 to 2006 killed a total of 130 people in Red Sea resorts on the Sinai Peninsula that were blamed on militants loyal to Al-Qaeda.

Those attacks put a dent in the number of tourists traveling to Egypt, draining the Mediterranean nation of vital revenues.

Sunday's attack took place outside a hotel across the square from the Al-Husseini Mosque, one of Egypt's oldest places of worship, and witnesses said the force of the blast shook the surrounding buildings.

The blast wounded 17 French tourists, one of them seriously, as well as a 37-year-old German, three Saudis and four Egyptians, officials said. There were conflicting accounts about how the attack was carried out.

Witnesses and a police official told AFP two bombs were thrown from a rooftop overlooking the street. The second device failed to detonate and was blown up in a controlled blast, a police source said.

The French foreign minister, speaking in Brussels, said: "It is very disturbing to think that some people on the rooftops threw very deadly bombs at random into the crowd."

However, the prosecutor's office said a homemade bomb went off under a concrete bench, creating a 30-centimeter crater and shattering the bench.

Egypt has been afflicted by violence throughout its modern history. President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist group in 1981 and Hosni Mubarak has been the target of a dozen attacks in 28 years in power.

The country lives under a state of emergency, allowing arbitrary detention, which has been repeatedly renewed pending finalization of an anti-terror law.

On the other hand, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has expressed appreciation for the support from Egypt during talks in Cairo with Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak. Bashir is waiting to hear whether he will be served with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Cairo wants the ICC to defer the arrest warrant for at least a year. Up to 300,000 people are said to have died in Darfur in a six-year conflict between the government and rebels.

President Bashir is under enormous international pressure, but over lunch the Egyptians assured him that as long as there is meaningful progress on the Darfur crisis he can count on their support.

Egypt, in line with Arab thinking, believes that if an arrest warrant for Bashir was to be issued at the Hague it could scupper their efforts to mediate between the Sudanese government and the rebels, risking further instability.

The Egyptians want the court to defer the arrest warrant for at least a year to give President Bashir more time.

A spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry said that aside from Darfur the two leaders also discussed the precarious peace between North and South which now stands at a crucial crossroads.

With two years remaining before a referendum on self-determination for the South, experts say confidence in the so-called Comprehensive Peace Agreement is diminishing, with mistrust mounting between the two parties.

The ICC will no doubt base its decision on whether the arrest warrant endangers progress on the varied peace negotiations or whether they would be further advanced with the president out of the picture.

Egypt warned on Sunday of dire repercussions if an international arrest warrant is issued for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir just as steps are being agreed toward ending the six-year conflict in Darfur. "An arrest warrant for President Bashir will have dangerous consequences for the situation in Darfur, in particular, and Sudan in general," presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad told reporters after Bashir met Mubarak in Cairo.

Egypt cannot directly affect the decision of the ICC, but a number of countries have called on the court to delay issuing the arrest warrant for al-Bashir called for by prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

Awwad also said that the ICC should distance itself from "politicization and selectivity," and noting that a country like Israel should be receiving a similar treatment over its killing of Palestinians during the recent assault on Gaza Strip.

Sudanese ambassador Abdel Moneim Mabrouk told The Associated Press that Egypt wasn't the only country lobbying the court to not issue the warrant. "Egypt along with other Arab and African countries are working in the Security Council to either delay or halt it," he said.

Awwad, however, indicated that those efforts might not be producing much results with the Security Council. "Talks inside the Security Council are not promising," he said.

Al-Bashir's visit to Egypt came one day after he announced the release of 24 detainees involved in the Darfur conflict as a goodwill gesture ahead of a new round of peace talks in Qatar with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement.

Fighting erupted in 2003 when ethnic African rebels revolted against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of neglect and discrimination. In addition to the death of some 300,000 people, another 2.7 million have been displaced.