One killed in Egypt mosque blast

Source: Al Jazeera

One killed in Egypt mosque blast

The historic district was the scene of a previous bomb attack in 2005

One person has been killed and about 19 people, mostly foreigners, injured in a bomb blast outside Egypt's historic Hussein mosque in Cairo.

Police said the person killed in the explosion on Sunday in the popular tourist area was a French woman.

Passersby were injured after being hit by stone and marble fragments after the bomb went off outside the mosque, a police official at the scene said.

French and German nationals were among the wounded.

"It was an explosive, perhaps a hand grenade," one police official said.

The Egyptian MENA news agency, quoting eyewitnesses, said the explosive devices were thrown from the roof of a nearby hotel.

Blood stains could be seen in the front courtyard of the mosque, next to the famed Khan el-Khalili bazaar.

Police detonated a second device without causing any injuries.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/02/2009222175234931911.html

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Just heard about this on another forum

I'm in Alexandria, about 200 km (120 m) from Cairo.

Latest updates I've heard say the bomb was probably thrown from someone on a motorcycle, who then got away.

First reports said two bombs went off. Updates are saying police found and detonated the second bomb.

The mosque and Khan el-Khalili Market are in the heart of Cairo's tourist section.

The market was also attacked in spring 2005, by bombing and by two women shooting up a tourist bus. This coincided with triple attacks on popular Red Sea tourist resorts during 2004-05: Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh, and Doha.

Those attacks were symbolic in that they all took place on Egyptian national holidays, e.g., the Sharm bombing occurred on 25 July, Revolution Day, when Egyptians celebrate the 1952 overthrow of King Farouk.

Usual Trivia: according to legend, the Khan el-Khalili market is literally built right on top of a mass grave. That legend says when the ruling Shi'ite Fatimid Dynasty was overthrown in 1171 and the Sunni Ayyubid Dynasty took over, the new rulers wanted to build a palace on top of an existing, walled Shi'ite cemetery. They simply dug up all the bodies and tossed them over the wall, not bothering with re-burials. Then later, the market was also built on the other side of the wall, atop all those disinterred Sh'ia corpses.