Egyptian police yesterday killed 40 alleged terrorists in a crackdown after a roadside bomb attack on a tour bus killed three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide.
The suspects were killed in separate raids in Giza Governorate, home to Egypt’s famed pyramids and the scene of Friday’s deadly bombing, and in the restive Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.
Two raids in Giza Governorate killed 30 “terrorists,” while the remaining 10 were killed in North Sinai Governorate, the ministry said.
Photo: AFP
Authorities acted after receiving information that the suspects were preparing a spate of attacks against state and tourist institutions, as well as churches, it said.
“Information was received by the national security [apparatus] that a group of terrorists were planning to carry out a series of aggressive attacks targeting state institutions, particularly economic ones, as well as tourism, armed forces, police and Christian places of worship,” the statement said.
Early on Friday evening, a roadside bomb hit a tour bus in the al-Haram District near the Giza pyramids, killing the three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide, officials said.
An Egyptian bus driver and 11 other Vietnamese were wounded in the attack, the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, the first attack to target tourists since last year.
Saigon Tourist, the tour company that organized the trip, said that the Vietnamese were “on their way to a restaurant for dinner” when the bomb exploded.
Company officials were yesterday heading to Cairo and plans were made to allow some relatives of the victims to also fly to Egypt.
One of those heading to Cairo was Nguyen Nguyen Vu, whose sister Nguyen Thuy Quynh died in the bombing and brother-in-law Le Duc Minh was wounded.
The couple, both aged 56, were in the seafood business and vacationing in Egypt when the tragedy occurred, Nguyen Thuy Quynh’s younger brother said on Friday.
“We were all very shocked... My sister and her husband travel quite a lot and they are quite experienced in traveling abroad. Their hobby is traveling,” Nguyen Nguyen Vu told reporters.
He said that he was applying for a visa and hoped to travel yesterday.
“Our wish is that we could bring my sister back home, and I hope that I can settle things well in the next two to three days,” he added.
Friday’s deadly bombing was the latest blow to Egypt’s vital tourism industry, which has been reeling from turmoil set off by the 2011 uprising that forced then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak from power.
Egypt has been seeking to lure tourists back by touting new archeological discoveries and bolstering security around archeological sites and in airports.
In July last year, two German tourists were stabbed to death by a suspected Muslim militant at the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
It is also planning to open a major museum near the Giza pyramids — the only surviving structures of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
In October 2015, a bomb claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group killed 224 people on board a passenger airplane carrying Russian tourists home from the Sinai Peninsula.
While tourism has picked up since 2011, the 8.2 million people who visited Egypt last year were still a far cry from the 14.7 million who visited in the year before the uprising.
Friday’s blast and the subsequent police raids came as Egypt battles a persistent Muslim extremist insurgency in North Sinai, which surged after the 2013 overthrow by the Egyptian Army of Mubarak’s successor, former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
Militants linked to the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for previous attacks, including against Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, which makes up about 10 percent of the population.
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