Girl’s Death Is Turned Against Extremists : Egypt: Hundreds attend funeral of child killed by bomb meant for premier. Cairo seeks to use outrage in drive on terrorists.

A 12-year-old girl killed in a failed attempt to assassinate Egypt’s prime minister was buried Friday, while the government tried to turn public outrage over her death into support for its fight against Muslim extremists.

Hundreds turned out for Shaima Abdel-Halim’s funeral in a government mosque usually reserved for burying VIPs.

“Terrorism is the enemy of God,” mourners chanted as the schoolgirl’s coffin was carried through downtown Cairo.

“What has she done to them? What is our mistake?” Shaima’s grandmother screamed at a government minister at one point. The official, Education Minister Hussein Bahaa Din, wept.

A bomb lodged under a car outside a girls’ school exploded Thursday as Prime Minister Atef Sedki’s motorcade passed.

Shaima was crushed by a door torn from its hinges by the blast. Most of the 21 people injured were cut by shattered glass. Sedki was not hurt.

Egypt’s state-run television repeatedly aired footage of property destroyed in the attack and of top government officials visiting hospitalized survivors to pay respects and promise compensation.

A banner headline in today’s editions of the government weekly newspaper Akbar el Yom declared: “The People of Egypt Condemn Terrorism.” Other newspapers carried similar headlines and quoted vows of security officials to “eradicate extremism.”

Jihad, a radical group that assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and the Parliament Speaker, Rifaat Mahgoub, in 1990, claimed responsibility for the attempt on Sedki.

Jihad, or Holy War, is one of several Muslim fundamentalist groups seeking to topple Egypt’s secular government and establish a strict Islamic state.

More than 240 people have died in the terrorist campaign in the last two years.