As the twin Cairo attacks mystery unravels, police remain in hot pursuit of an accomplice at large. Jailan Halawi reports On Saturday 30 April, twin attacks on tourists in Cairo -- one carried out by a suicide bomber at Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square, near the Egyptian Museum; the other by two veiled women in the Al- Sayida Aisha neighbourhood off the Salah Salem highway -- suddenly brought back the spectre of terror to a nation that had only recently recovered from a ferocious decade-long wave of violence. At 3.30pm, just as Cairo's Saturday rush hour was beginning, a suicide bomber jumped off the railing of the 6 October fly-over, landing in Abdel- Moneim Riyad Square. The nail-filled bomb he was carrying went off, killing himself and injuring an Israeli couple, a Swedish man, an Italian woman and three Egyptians. Less than two hours later, two fully veiled women shot at a tourist bus in the Al-Sayida Aisha area near the Citadel; their unprecedented attack caused no casualties, other than to the perpetrators themselves, one of whom allegedly shot the other, before committing suicide. As baffling as the twin attacks may have appeared, it was only a matter of hours before the Interior Ministry announced it had identified the culprits. A ministry statement described the attacks as desperate, last minute acts undertaken by a suspected terrorist and two of his female relatives. According to ministry spokesman Hamdi Abdel-Karim, DNA tests revealed that the suspect in question is 27- year-old Ihab Youssri Yassin, who has been on the run from the police who sought him for his suspected involvement in the 7 April Khan Al- Khalili bombing that claimed the lives of three tourists. Investigation into the Khan Al-Khalili incident had identified -- also through DNA tests -- the main perpetrator of that bombing as 18-year-old Hassan Raafat Bashandi, who died during the operation itself. While three accomplices -- 29-year-old Tareq Ahmed El-Sayed, 19-year-old Reda El-Sayed Ibrahim, and 35-year-old Akram Mohamed Fawzi -- were soon arrested, police said the group's mastermind, 27- year-old Ashraf Said Youssef, remained at large, believed to be hiding somewhere in Giza. Youssef was also linked to two other accomplices, Gamal Ahmed Abdel-Aal and -- finally -- Ihab Youssri Yassin, who police said had escorted Bashandi to the scene of the attack on 7 April. Yassin, further investigations revealed, was hiding out with his 17-year-old brother Mohamed and 26-year-old sister Negat. Police had provided the press with photos of all the wanted suspects; as a result, Abdel-Aal was reportedly located and arrested in the early hours of Thursday 28 April; Youssef, the alleged mastermind, was captured at dawn the next day. Yassin, meanwhile, managed to elude the police until his deadly downtown fall from the bridge on Saturday afternoon. Investigators say Yassin and the others had been planning attacks to avenge their accomplices and relatives who had already been arrested. On Friday, Reuters reported the death, while in police custody, of Mohamed Suleiman Youssef -- a cousin of Khan Al-Khalili attack mastermind Ashraf Said Youssef. Youssef had reportedly learned of his cousin's death on Wednesday 27 April, and had by then decided to hasten the carrying out of the planned revenge attacks. When, however, both Youssef and Abdel-Aal were arrested before they could accomplish their mission, security sources said Yassin -- with the help of several more accomplices -- decided to go for it anyway. He reportedly told his sister as well as his fiancée -- Iman Khamis -- that if his attack did not go as planned, they should carry out a second attack themselves. Security sources said the group's original plan involved Yassin planting a bomb inside one of the tourist buses parked in Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square, near the Egyptian Museum. Yassin, Negat, and Iman were reportedly spotted in a car being driven by Yassin's youngest brother Mohamed towards Abdel- Moneim Riyad Square prior to the attack. Alarmed by the heavy security presence in the area, Yassin ascended the nearby staircase leading to the 6 October Bridge; there, he found himself cornered by police, whereupon he panicked and jumped off the fly-over while holding the explosive device, which detonated on the spot, decapitating him, and injuring the seven passersby. With the attack clearly not progressing as planned, the other perpetrators then reportedly rushed towards the Al-Sayida Aisha area to drop off the two women, who were in an anxious, agonised state, their sole goal now being revenge for Yassin's death. Here again, the initial plan -- to aim at any of the tourist buses parked in the tourist Citadel area in old Islamic Cairo -- was thwarted by the heavy presence of security. When the women decided to target a moving bus instead, they only ended up hitting its windshield before -- fearful of being arrested -- Negat shot Iman, then killed herself. While Negat died on the spot, Iman's demise came several hours later, in the hospital. Security forces, meanwhile, said they remain in hot pursuit of Yassin's youngest brother, Mohamed, who is allegedly in possession of explosive materials, and may be planning to carry out further attacks. Ihab, Negat and Mohamed Yassin's father Youssri was quoted extensively in the press this week urging his fugitive son to turn himself in to the police "before it is too late... I don't want to be given your corpse like I was with your brother and sister," he pleaded. "Turn yourself in, you're all I've got." An older brother named Tamer lives in Qatar. All of the suspects are from the Shubra Al-Khayma district, where police have embarked on a widespread campaign of arrests; 200 of the suspects' family members, neighbours and friends have reportedly been detained. Up until press time, the Interior Ministry was saying that only some of the suspects' relatives had been released. On Tuesday, rumors of further violent attacks spread when an oxygen cylinder dropped from a pickup truck and exploded as it was passing by a five-star hotel in the suburb of Heliopolis. No casualties or further information were divulged. Meanwhile, security measures are stepped up all around the country with the Ministry of Interior announcing a state of emergency. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Who's who HASSAN BASHANDI: Bashandi is the suicide bomber who died in the Khan Al- Khalili bombing. Born in 1987, Bashandi was a first year engineering student at the University of Benha. TAREQ AHMED EL-SAYED: El-Sayed is one of three suspects arrested following the Khan Al-Khalili bombing. Born in 1971, he owns a workshop for computer repair and lives in Shubra Al-Khayma. REDA EL-SAYED IBRAHIM: Ibrahim is another of the three suspects arrested following the Khan Al-Khalili bombing. Born in 1986, he is a university student, at the Faculty of Agriculture. AKRAM MOHAMED FAWZI: Fawzi is the third suspect arrested following the Khan Al- Khalili bombing. Born in 1970, he owns a marble workshop. IHAB YOUSSRI YASSIN: Yassin's decapitated corpse was found at the site of the Abdel- Moneim Riyad Square bombing of 30 April, where four tourists and three Egyptians were injured. Born in 1978, Yassin was a self-employed university graduate. He graduated in the late 1990s from the Faculty of Commerce. His picture appeared in national newspapers a day before the Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square incident as one of three wanted accomplices in the khan Al-Khalili bombing. ASHRAF SAID YOUSSEF: Alleged to be the military mastermind behind this latest wave of bombings, Youssef was identified by the police to be another of the wanted three. The only suspect with a security file, Youssef was implicated six years ago in an attempted terrorist attack and has been on the run since. A number of Youssef's relatives were arrested following the Khan Al-Khalili bombing in an attempt to get clues as to his whereabouts. A day before the 30 April twin attacks, Youssef's cousin, Mohamed Suleiman Youssef (a primary school teacher at Shubra Al-Khayma) was declared to have died while in police custody. GAMAL AHMED ABDEL- AAL: The third wanted suspect, Abdel-Aal is a Shubra Al- Khayma English language school teacher. The police have found a letter he had left his family saying he was joining a Jihad mission. He is alleged to be the ideologue of the group. NEGAT YOUSSRI YASSIN: Negat, also known as Heba, is Ihab Youssry Yassin's sister. Born in 1980, Negat is one of the two veiled women who shot at the tourists bus in Al-Sayida Aisha, and was said to have instantly committed suicide on the site after the failure of the operation. She graduated from a technical vocational training college. IMAN KHAMIS: The second veiled woman to have carried out the attack on the Al-Sayida Aisha tourists bus, Iman is a close friend and neighbour of Negat, who was also said to be the fiancée of Negat's brother, Ihab Youssry Yassin. Together Negat and Iman were reported to have carried out the operation in revenge for Ihab, whose body was blown up at the Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square. MOHAMED YOUSSRY YASSIN: He is the youngest brother of Ihab and Negat, currently hunted by the police for his alleged involvement in the 30 April twin attacks. He is alleged to have driven his brother, sister and her friend to the sites of the two operations respectively. Mohamed was born in 1988, and is a school-leaver who worked as a mechanic. The Yassins only uninvolved brother has left Egypt two years ago, and is currently residing in Qatar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quote, unquote "As I stood I was suddenly struck by the sound of a big explosion accompanied by dense black smoke after a body fell from the bridge overhead. Those standing around me in the square began saying that my clothes were covered in blood. I lost consciousness, fell to the ground, and was moved to Al-Mounira Hospital." (Victim of the Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square explosion, Al-Wafd "Terrorist attacks happen all over the world, even in our country, Spain, where a train was blown up. This would not stop us from travelling." (Spanish tourist at the Saladdin Citadel) "I beat them often because they asked for money not because I hated them." (Youssri Yassin, father of the twin attacks culprits) "We want to be part of the campaign for peaceful change in the country but the practices of the security forces are radicalising the moderates amongst us. They want to turn every one into a terrorist." (Abdel-Moneim Abul-Futuh, senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood) "Informal housing areas are the primary breeding grounds for violence and the culture of hatred." (Mossad Oweissi, head of Helwan University's Youth Centre for Studies and Research, Al-Wafd ) "I don't think this will be a pattern in Egypt. I am positive that our society and security services are able to maintain safety." (Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif) "The deviance of youth, prompted by the suffocating economic crisis and consequent unemployment, is fuel to the culture of violence and terrorism. We are walking on a minefield." (Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, MP and member of the National Council for Human Rights, Al-Wafd ) "The emergency law has turned innocent detainees into potential terrorists seeking vengeance for their fractured sense of dignity." (Hafez Abu Seada, secretary- general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights) "We don't know who their leaders are, or the precise motives inciting them to resort to violence, which might explain the difficulty we face in forecasting when or where they will hit next." (Mamdouh Ismail, a former member of the Jihad movement, and a founding member of Al-Sharia Party) "The weapons used by the veiled girls were old rusty guns. The terrorist's sister walked on crutches." (Eyewitness) "God's punishment for a terrorist wearing the niqab is double." (Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Said Tantawi) "Those who engage in [terrorism] do not even merit appellations reserved to human beings." (Pope Shenouda III, Al-Akhbar ) "Such operations [could] become an Egyptian 9/11, providing fertile ground for the renewal and strengthening of the argument that puts security above reform." (Ahmed Seif-El-Islam, leading member of the Kifaya (Enough) movement) "How much of an impact [the attacks will have on the tourism industry] will depend on the efforts exerted by the different sectors in the coming phase." (Former Minister of Tourism Gamal El-Nazer, Al-Hayat) "Injustice feels so bitter. It is just illogical that whenever a terror attack occurs, police rounds up just everyone who happens to be a neighbour or a relative of a potential suspect... This general feeling of injustice and suppression will only breed violence and wreak social havoc." (Shaimaa Abd Rabbu, the wife of 26- year-old Ahmed Sami Abdel-Maqsoud) "Violence is testimony to the oppression suffered by individuals since childhood, becoming a means to express pain, and may be directed towards others, or towards oneself. Research has proven that when a sense of justice is lost, depression takes over and examples of violence begin to spring up, metamorphosing into a culture within society." (Psychology Professor Elhami Abdel-Aziz, Al-Wafd ) "These attacks are living proof of how [emergency laws] have actually failed to curb terrorism." (Bahieddin Hassan, director of the Cairo Centre for Human Rights) "Just as the US launched a war against a faceless, nameless enemy, under the rubric of terrorism, these groups have decided to launch their war against anything Western. To them, any foreigner in the land becomes synonymous with America." (Rifaat Sid Ahmed, Head of Jaffa Centre for Political Studies)
