CAIRO: The United States Embassy in Egypt has called on its citizens to avoid travel to the Sinai Peninsula. The message issued to its citizens urges them to ensure they do not travel close to the Israeli border, where they fear attacks could arise. It came as the Egyptian military cracked down on travelers to and from the Sinai, stopping buses a handful of times en route to their destinations along the Red Sea coast. At one checkpoint, vehicles were made to wait at least an hour in order to allow a convoy of vehicles coming the other direction to pass. The military officials checking passports at every stop, said they were simply “doing their job and following orders,” unable to give further details. One tourism bus driver said that he has been attacked by Bedouin tribes who have cut roads to the peninsula and the Egyptian capital in recent weeks. The message allegedly comes in response to the recent instability in the area after the attacks in the Israeli Red Sea town of Eilat and the attacks on Egyptian security personnel, both of which resulted in 6 Egyptian and 8 Israeli deaths. “There's a real threat in this region and we ask our citizens to be cautions and take care of themselves if you want to travel in this area,” the US embassy statement read. The embassy also reported that there are instructions to the US mission to notify the regional security office if anyone chooses to travel in the area. The statement on Sunday comes as the Israeli government has barred its citizens from traveling to Egypt through the Taba border crossing, Israel's only land passage into Egypt. BM
