CAIRO: A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the heart ofancient Islamic Cairo, killing three policemen who were chasing him throughits narrow alleyways, medical and security sources said on Tuesday.
Monday evening’s bombing, in the Darb al-Ahmar neighbourhood near thehistoric Al-Azhar mosque, also wounded two other policemen, the interiorministry said in a statement.
“As security forces surrounded the man and were about to stop him and bringhim under control, an explosive device in his possession detonated,” theministry said.
Video posted on social media on Tuesday morning showed police catching upwith a male cyclist before being enveloped by an explosion.
The ministry said the bomber was being chased as part of a manhunt forthose responsible for a foiled bomb attack near a mosque in Cairo’s twincity of Giza on Friday.
Police sappers successfully defused that device.
Monday evening’s blast damaged several shops in the alleyway which lies inan area frequented by foreign tourists.
“My shop’s front and windows were destroyed,” said Kareem Sayed Awad, abarbershop owner.
“The problem is not only that but also that people died. This is a touristarea and such incidents affect it,” he said.
Egypt’s tourism industry, which had already been hit by the turmoil thatfollowed the Arab Spring revolution of 2011, has been further damaged by aseries of deadly attacks against foreign tourists by suspected Islamistmilitants.
In December, three Vietnamese holidaymakers and their Egyptian guide werekilled when a homemade bomb exploded on their bus near the famed pyramidsin Giza.
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Authorities have made major efforts to lure tourists back, touting a seriesof archaeological finds and a new museum next to the pyramids, as well asenhanced security at airports and around ancient sites.
Tourism has slowly picked up, with tourist arrivals reaching 8.3 million in2017, compared with 5.3 million the previous year, official statisticsshowed.
But that figure was still far short of the record influx of 2010 when morethan 14 million visitors flocked to see the country’s sites.
– militant insurgency –
In February 2018, security forces launched a major operation against thelocal affiliate of the Islamic State group, which has been mainly focusedon volatile North Sinai province but has also targeted militant cellselsewhere in the country.
Egypt has often announced the killing of militants during Operation Sinai2018, but statements on significant losses by the security force have beenrare.
On Saturday, the army reported that an attack on a checkpoint in NorthSinai left 15 soldiers dead or wounded and seven of the suspected jihadistassailants killed.
On Tuesday, the interior ministry announced that 16 suspected jihadists hadbeen killed during raids in the provincial capital El-Arish. It did not saywhen.
The raids, on a deserted building in the city’s Al-Obaydat neighbourhoodand a house under construction in the Abu Eita district, targeted suspected“terrorist cells” in the city and triggered firefights in which the 16 werekilled, the ministry said. – APP/AFP
