Sunday's bomb on a bus carrying 33 tourists in Taba which killed three South Koreans and their Egyptian bus driver and left 16 injured is the first major terrorist attack targeting tourists in Egypt in eight years. The Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which has claimed responsibility for a host of recent attacks targeting security forces, masterminded the blast. The bomber used an explosive belt weighing 5-10kg in the attack, according to security sources. Since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, terrorist attacks targeting police stations, military checkpoints and other government facilities have left dozens of security forces dead. The majority of attacks have taken place in the Sinai, a leading tourist destination. In response the army launched an anti-terrorism operation in the peninsula. Dozens of militants have been killed, hundreds arrested, and smuggling tunnels linking Gaza to Sinai have been closed. Injured bus passengers are being treated in hospitals in Taba, Nuweiba and Sharm Al-Sheikh. Security officials say the bus arrived at the Taba crossing from St Catherine's in central Sinai where the tourists had been visiting the monastery. Minster of Health Maha Rabat, accompanied by Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou, visited the injured in the Sharm El-Sheikh International Hospital. The ministers also met with the deputy Korean ambassador and Khaled Fouda, the Governor of South Sinai. “The targeting of a tourist bus in Taba is a qualitative change in terrorist tactics,” says security expert Tharwat Okasha. Many experts see the attack as a harbinger of a new wave of violence. “Terrorist groups will now target any object in their attempts to undermine the Egyptian state,” says Major General Fouad Allam, a former deputy head of state security. “They now have the tourism industry in their sights.” These are opportunistic attacks, he added, and whenever an opportunity arises the terrorists will take it. Zaazou told state TV that the Taba explosion was a deliberate attempt to halt the slight recovery in tourist numbers visiting Egypt. In the wake of the attack a number of countries issued travel warnings for Sinai. Seoul issued a special travel alert “on the inland areas of the Sinai Peninsula and the coastal areas of the Gulf of Aqaba” and urged South Korean nationals “to pay special heed to their safety and head to a safer country as soon as possible”. Egypt's tourism industry, which once employed four million, has been struggling to recover since the 2011 revolution. It deteriorated further following the political upheavals of summer 2013. “Tourism is a major source of income and therefore a target in the eyes of terrorists seeking to destroy the stability of the state,” says Major General Magdi Bassiouni. The last major terrorist attack in Egypt took place in April 2006 when three explosions in Dahab left 23 and more than 80 wounded. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the militant group Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad. In 2005 the group detonated a bomb in Sharm El-Sheikh that killed 88 people and injured 150. In October 2004 three bombs went off in Taba leaving 34 dead and 171 injured. An attack in Luxor carried out by Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya killed 60 tourists in 1997. “It will not be the last terrorist attack,” warns Allam. “It will take longer to uproot terrorism than most people expect.” A number of commentators have drawn comparisons with the late 1980s and early 90s when Egypt was rocked by a spate of bomb attacks targeting tourist sites across the country. “I'm confident that Egypt is going to eliminate terrorism. The national security apparatus and other security agencies did so before, in the 1990s, and will do so again,” says Allam. Sunday's blast was condemned at home and abroad. Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims on Monday. Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawki Allam described the incident as “evil” while the United Nations, the Arab League and the United States unequivocally condemned the bombing.
