DNA tests reveal the identity of the Al-Azhar suicide bomber, writes Jailan Halawi On Monday an Interior Ministry statement identified the perpetrator of last Thursday's Al-Azhar bombing as 18-year-old engineering student Hassan Raafat Bashandi. Three tourists, together with the bomber, were killed in the attack. Police have detained 30 people for questioning, including Bashandi's uncle and mother. Bashandi, who was born in 1987, lived in the north Cairo district of Shubra Al-Kheima and attended the Benha branch of Zaqaziq University. The ministry said a team of forensic doctors identified Bashandi using DNA tests. Investigations indicated that Bashandi neither belonged to, nor had links with, any terrorist organisation. The young man had, however, recently begun to take an interest in militant Islamist ideas, the ministry said. The death of Bashandi's father last August, together with regional and international political events, had left the impressionable student in a state of "anxiety and frustration", the ministry said. "After his father's death he started to become committed to certain extremist ideas and tried to force his family not to watch television... He showed signs of emotional stress towards the course of events internationally and regionally and this became a source of dispute between Bashandi and his mother," the statement said. While officials at the Ministry of Interior remain unclear as to what triggered last Thursday's suicide attack they are adamant that the bomber was not a member of any known organised Islamist militant group. The ministry said Bashandi was carrying a leather bag containing three kilos of explosives as well as a large quantity of nails. A search of the house of the bomber's aunt, where Bashandi often stayed, revealed 43 empty firework containers from which the gunpowder had been emptied. Police believe he used the material to prepare what they called a "primitive" bomb. A search of Bashandi's own house revealed computer discs containing articles on jihad and combat operations, as well as instructions on how to make primitive bombs from materials available on the market. All of the documents appear to have been downloaded from the Internet. The bombing, which took place on Gawhar Al- Qaaid Street near Khan Al-Khalili, Cairo's largest bazaar, sent shockwaves through the country. It was the first fatal attack on tourists in the Egyptian capital since 1997, when two gunmen fired automatic rifles at a tour bus parked outside the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, killing ten people. That same year militants killed 58 tourists and four Egyptians in an attack at the site of Queen Hatshepsut's Temple in Luxor. Last October bombs were detonated at several locations in Sinai, including the Red Sea resort town of Taba, killing 34 people. The authorities linked the Sinai operation to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The operation, they said, was masterminded by a Palestinian, and targeted Israeli tourists. Last month an Egyptian man stabbed and wounded a Hungarian couple near Al-Hussein Mosque. The perpetrator said the tourists were behaving in a manner that showed no respect for the sanctity of Prophet Mohamed's grandson. He also claimed to be acting to avenge Iraqis and Palestinians murdered daily by Americans and Israelis. Following last Thursday's attack security in Cairo was stepped up, especially around embassies and neighbourhoods with large foreign communities. An unknown group calling itself the Islamic Pride Brigade in the Land of the Nile, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for the attack, posting a message on an Islamist website saying one of its militants had carried out the bombing in protest against the "tyranny" of President Hosni Mubarak's government and US policies in the region. While the authenticity of the claim could not be verified, officials continue to stress that the attack was an "individual act". Egypt's most militant group, Al-Gamaa Al- Islamiya -- whose incarcerated leaders issued a unilateral ceasefire initiative in 1997 -- issued a statement denouncing the Al-Azhar attack and reaffirming their commitment to the ceasefire. The statement, entitled "Random explosions do not safeguard religion or reform states", stressed the group's condemnation of the targeting of tourists and described last Thursday's attack as "an irresponsible act that undermines the image of Islam, and places the country in a vicious circle of chaos and unrest". A second militant group, Jihad, also issued a statement condemning the attack, which it described as being "at odds" with Islamic Sharia law. Jihad, once led by Ayman El-Zawahri -- believed to be Osama Bin Laden's closest advisor -- is currently headed by Nabil Naeim, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat in 1981. The Jihad statement said the group was against carrying out operations inside Egypt. The denunciation was intended to distance the organisation from the culprit, whom some have suggested was affiliated with a breakaway Jihad group. Diaa Rashwan, a senior political analyst at the Al- Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, discounts the possibility that last Thursday's attack was the work of a radical Islamist organisation. Such groups, says Rashwan, carefully plan their operations with specific targets in mind -- like the 1996 Europa Hotel attack that killed 18 Israeli tourists. In the post 9-11 world, says Rashwan, "state-led violence" like the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the continuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, have left the Arab and Muslim world in a state of tension that needed to be "handled wisely". Last Thursday's incident was "a regional event that took place on Egyptian soil, and reflected people's hatred of US policies and anybody that looks American". A senior security official, speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly on the customary condition of anonymity, agrees with Rashwan. The attack, he said, clearly shows that "we are living in a state of crisis that needs to be wisely handled in order to end the cycle of violence, rather than extend it." The crisis, he said, had its roots in the US administration's "blind" support for Israel. Because US policy "glorifies" the aggressor while "criminalising" the victims Arabs and Muslims feel antagonised, especially when "their leaders appear to be in limbo". Whenever the US decides to ignore the UN, or engages in unilateral actions that "terrorise Arabs and Muslims" the possibilities that such attacks will take place increase. This combination of factors, the source said, creates a state of discontent the "climate for disturbed and frustrated young people to believe such operations might be the only way for them to express their anger and regain their lost pride."
