Westerners Targeted in Egypt

The New York Times is reporting on a Cairo bombing targeted against tourists at a bazaar.  The attack killed two (though one may be a suicide bomber; it is still unclear from the report) and left 18 wounded.

"The wounded - listed as four French, three Americans, an Italian, a Turk and nine Egyptians - were treated at Hussein Hospital, which was surrounded by a row of police officers in full riot gear.

Nurses at the receiving desk said most of those admitted had nails more than an inch long and shards of glass embedded in their bodies, although one woman had much of her lower body blown away."

The attack is aimed at weakening the government economically through affecting Egypt's tourism industry.

"The country's tourism industry, a main engine of its economy, has been booming after suffering from violent attacks by Islamic militants seeking to topple the government in the late 1990's."

It will be interesting to see if this impacts the Egyptian view of their upcoming election.  These strategies did not work well in Iraq, leading up to their January election.  This type of bombing would not seem to help the Muslim Brotherhood, since it would likely precipitate more arrests of opposition party members, such as what occured after an October bombing (as reported here by the AP).  DEL does not mean to imply that the Muslim Brotherhood was responsible, but it cannot help the opposition by encouraging the government to take an even harder line.

I imagine these strategies will decrease tourism, hurting Egyptians, and ultimately hurt the election.  Maybe this is what the radical Islam terrorists want.  No democracy, just a theocracy by revolution. Time will tell. 

Comments

[Jarrod]

It seems unlikely the Brotherhood would be behind it, unless it was a radical splinter group of it. They are currently trying hard to gain legitimacy in Egypt and elsewhere and be allowed to run in elections so I imagine it is a more radical faction most likely unrelated to them.

Hurting tourism hurts a lot of Egyptians and will probably make the bombers ultimately unpopular. If this remains an isoated incident, perhaps it will only cause a momentary dip but any more would be bad news.

I'd be most interested in seeing who they blame. That ought to tell you whether it was a straight up bombing or a setup.

As usual, we'll be waiting to see what happens next.