April 2005 Cairo Terrorist Attacks - Aftermath

Aftermath

Two groups claimed responsibility in the early evening hours, local time: the Mujahedeen of Egypt and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. In its statement, the latter group said the attacks were in retaliation for the government's clampdown on dissidents in the wake of the Sinai Peninsula bombings of October 2004.

In the early hours of Sunday, 1 May, security forces arrested some 225 individuals for questioning, mostly from the dead three's home villages and from the area where they lived in Shubra. Particularly keenly sought was Muhammad Yassin, the teenage brother of Ehab Yousri Yassin, whom the police described as the only remaining suspect in the bazaar bomb attack and a material witness to the Saturday afternoon shooting. Muhammad was later extradited from Libya.

Over the course of the weekend, it also emerged that all three of the attackers involved in the attacks were relatives of Ashraf Said, a suspect in the 7 April bombing who was taken in for questioning and died in police custody on Friday, 29 April.

On August 20, 2007, four suspects were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the attacks. Five others received shorter jail sentences.

On March 9, 2007, one of the American victims published a book (The Only Road North) of his party's exploits in Africa which culminates in the tragic events of April 7, 2005.