The terrorist attack in a Cairo tourist bazaar was committed by an Islamic suicide bomber; don’t be surprised to see a major crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and their fellow Islamic supremacists, because this time Egypt’s tourist industry is at stake: Egypt Blast Raises Concerns of Insurgency. (Hat tip: Hulugu.)

The blast injured 18 people, including Egyptians, Americans and French. An American man in his 20s and a French woman were killed. Investigators were running DNA tests on the severely mutilated third body, which authorities say likely is that of the bomber.

A previously unknown group, the al-Ezz Islamic Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement, saying it was a message to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that Islamic militancy still exists in the country.

The authenticity of the claim could not be independently verified.

Egyptian officials sought to limit possible damage to Egypt’s vital tourism industry, stressing there was no evidence so far the bomber was part of a wider group.

“Initial evidence is that it was an individual act. The way in which the explosive was prepared was very primitive,” Prime Minister Ahmed Nazief told reporters after visiting victims at hospital.

Tourism Minister Ahmed El Maghraby said it was unlikely the blast was a prelude to a concerted terror campaign, adding: “So far, we have had no requests from tourists to leave early from Egypt.”

Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the head of Al-Azhar, one of the oldest and most prominent Muslim scholarly institutions, said the bombing could “only be carried out by someone who lost his mind.”

If the target had been Jews, or Americans in Iraq, Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi would have been praising the bomber as a “martyr.”