At Least Two Killed In Cairo Blast

An explosion apparently set off by a bomber on a motorcycle hit a tour group shopping in a historic bazaar Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding 20 — the first attack targeting foreign tourists in the Egyptian capital in more than seven years.

The dead included a French woman, officials said. Earlier a Health Ministry official said the other person killed was an American man, but later Health Minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin said his nationality had not been confirmed.

The wounded included 11 Egyptians and nine foreigners — and four of the 20 were in critical condition — said Brig. Gen. Nabil al-Azabi, head of security in Cairo. Among the wounded foreigners were two Americans, two Turks, two Italians, two French citizens and a Briton, the Health Ministry said.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo was putting out a warden message warning Americans to stay away from Khan al-Khalili, the sprawling bazaar area, and to use prudence elsewhere in the city, said embassy spokesman James L. Bullock. He would not confirm American casualties in the blast.

It appeared to be the first attack targeting tourists in the Egyptian capital in more than seven years. Egypt put down a campaign of violence in the 1990s by Islamic militants who frequently targeted foreigners in their bid to bring down the government.

Two witnesses reported that a man on a motorcycle set off a bomb. Police said they were investigating a motorcycle found near the scene with nails scattered on the ground around it, but they would not confirm if the blast was from a bomb.

The U.S. Embassy issued a warning to Americans to stay away from the bazaar area where the explosion occurred and to exercise caution throughout the city.

The blast went off near an organized tour group in the al-Moski bazaar, a maze of narrow alleys with shops selling jewelry, souvenirs and clothes near the main tourist bazaar of Khan al-Khalili.

Police said the death toll may rise by at least one more, with body parts strewn around the site of the blast, not far from Cairo's famed al-Azhar mosque.

The dead French woman was a tourist, said French Embassy spokeswoman Bernadette Abou Bechara. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo said he could not confirm that the casualties included Americans.

Rabab Rifaat, an Egyptian woman who was shopping in a store near the blast, said she heard "a boom, a horrible sound, very loud. Everyone started running." She then saw a decapitated head flying through the air.

The blast apparently was set off by a man who was either carrying a bomb or had it on his motorcycle, she said. A large, organized tour group was in the street, buying items at a market when the explosion went off, she said.

Six or seven people lay on the ground afterward and an Egyptian man ran with burns on his back and his clothes torn, Rifaat said.

Hundreds of police sealed off the area and two ambulances were at the scene. Tourists remained in Khan al-Khalili, several hundred yards outside the police cordon.

The dead French woman was a tourist, said French Embassy spokeswoman Bernadette Abou Bechara.

The Khan is the most famous of a number of closely packed bazaars near al-Azhar, one of the most prestigious Islamic institutions in the Sunni Muslim world, in Cairo's old city.

The last major militant attacks came in late 1997. In September that year, two gunmen fired automatic rifles at a tour bus parked outside the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, killing 10 people - mostly German tourists. A month later, militants killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians in an attack at a pharaonic temple in Luxor, southern Egypt.

Last October, explosions hit several hotels in the Sinai Peninsula, including one in the resort of Taba that killed 34 people and was linked by Egyptian authorities to Israeli-Palestinian violence.