EGYPTIAN police yesterday arrested a man suspected of hurling a makeshift bomb at Cairo's main synagogue on Sunday, as the suspect claimed he was on his way to ask for political asylum in the US. "We have arrested Gamal Hussein Ahmed, 39, who is suspected of throwing the bomb at the synagogue in Adli Street in downtown Cairo," a statement from the Interior Ministry said yesterday, according to the official Middle East News Agency (MENA). It added that Ahmed told the police officer, who had arrested him in the Garden City area in Cairo, that he was heading to the US Embassy to ask for asylum. According to the statement, the suspect is from the Nile-side Cairo area of Boulaq Aboul Ella. "However, the reasons why he committed such a crime are still unknown," it said. According to an official statement released on Sunday, a man checked into an hotel outside the synagogue at around 3:00am local time before abruptly throwing a suitcase out of the window towards the synagogue across the street. The case, which contained a makeshift bomb made of gasoline cans and sulfuric acid, burned briefly but did not detonate. Egypt's once thriving Jewish community largely left the country 50 years ago during hostilities between Egypt and Israel, but a number of heavily guarded synagogues remain.
