Bombers arrested

State security prosecutors are expected to start interrogating detainees believed to be behind the February Hussein bombings, reports Jailan Halawi

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On Monday Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab announced the arrest of suspects believed to be behind the 22 February bombings in Cairo's Khan El-Khalili bazaar that left a 17-year-old French girl dead and 24 others wounded.

According to security sources 13 suspects, including three Palestinians and two women whose nationality has not been revealed, were arrested. They are expected to appear before state security prosecutors within days. It was not clear when the arrests took place or whether the three people detained in February are being counted among the 13. The Ministry of Interior has said it will be releasing more details soon but did not give a time.

Forensic reports from February described the bomb, which was detonated beneath a stoned bench in Al-Hussein Square, as rudimentary. Eyewitnesses initially said the bomb appeared to have been thrown from the fourth floor of Al-Hussein Hotel, which overlooks the square, a scenario discounted by investigators.

The bomb was manufactured from material used in fireworks. It weighed between half a kilo and 750 grammes and consisted of two canisters placed inside a plastic water cooler. Filled with gunpowder and stones, it was detonated with a washing machine timer. A second bomb placed 30 metres away was detonated in a controlled explosion by police an hour and a half after the first blast.

Khan Al-Khalili market is a popular tourist destination, its labyrinthine alleyways home to an extensive market and some of Cairo's finest mediaeval buildings.

The tourism industry had only recently recovered from the spate of terrorist attacks that damaged Egypt's economy in the 1990s. The attacks reached a crescendo in 1997 after a bloody operation on the West Bank of Luxor claimed 58 lives. Yet despite widespread security operations and the ceasefire initiative launched by the country's most militant groups, Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya and Jihad, the problems have not disappeared completely.

In October 2004 a triple bombing at the Red Sea resort of Taba killed 34. In July 2005 a series of car bombs ripped through a luxury hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh, Sinai's most popular destination, killing 65 and injuring 160. On 24 April 2006 another triple bombing hit the Red Sea resort of Dahab leaving 19 dead. Two days later two suicide bombers targeted a Multinational Forces and Observer (MFO) base in northern Sinai. The attacks were officially attributed to unresolved tensions between Sinai Bedouins and the government.

Cairo, too, was the scene of a number of incidents following almost seven years of calm. In April 2005 a suicide bomber killed two French citizens and an American national after detonating a bomb in Gawhar Al-Qae'd street near Al-Hussein mosque. Two weeks later a suicide bomber jumped off the 6 October fly-over, landing in Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square: the nail- filled bomb he was carrying went off, killing the bomber 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-Sayeda Aisha area near the Citadel. There were no casualties other than the perpetrators, one of whom allegedly shot the other before committing suicide. The attacks brought back the spectre of terror to a nation that had only recently recovered from a ferocious, decade-long wave of violence.

Security forces characterised the attacks as acts of desperation from tiny fragmented groups and insist that they are in control of the situation.