Attacks on foreign tourists in Egypt

Egypt is in the spotlight after a bomb exploded on a bus carrying 15 Vietnamese tourists in Cairo near the Giza pyramids on December 28. The bomb, hidden near a wall, exploded about 5-6 meters from the bus, killing three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian tour guide. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry called it an act of terrorism. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

This is not the first time foreign tourists have been attacked in Egypt. Several radical Islamist groups linked to IS and al-Qaeda have carried out attacks in popular tourist cities.

On July 14, 2017, Abdel-Rahman Shaaban, 29, swam from a public beach to the beach of a resort hotel in Hurghada on the Red Sea and stabbed five German tourists and a Czech, killing three. The attacker shouted that he was “not aiming at Egyptians.” Hotel staff chased and arrested the attacker.

Hurghada has previously seen an attack on foreign tourists when two Islamist militants stormed the Bella Vista hotel in January 2016, stabbing to death two tourists from Austria and Sweden. One attacker was killed at the scene and the other was arrested. The self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility.

Russian airline Kogalymavia Flight 9268 crashed on October 31, 2015, in the Sinai Peninsula after departing from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, Egypt, bound for Saint Petersburg, Russia. All 224 people on board were killed, most of them tourists. The victims included 219 Russians, 4 Ukrainians and one Belarusian.

Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, the Sinai branch of IS, claimed responsibility. Russian investigators concluded that a bomb was smuggled onto the plane.

The resort city of Dahab, a favorite destination for both Western tourists and locals, suffered three consecutive bomb attacks on April 24, 2006, near restaurants, cafes and a crowded market.

Twenty-three people were killed, including citizens of Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Russia, Switzerland and Hungary. About 80 people were injured, including tourists from Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, South Korea, Lebanon, Palestine, the UK and the US. Investigators believe it was a suicide attack carried out by the Islamist terrorist organization Jama'at al-Tawhīd wal-Jihad.

A series of bombings hit markets and hotels in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula on 23 July 2005. Eighty-eight people were killed, mostly Egyptians but also 11 Britons, two Germans, one Czech, six Italians, one Israeli and one American.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a militant group linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack but two other groups later claimed responsibility.

The Hilton Taba hotel and an Israeli campsite were the targets of three bombings in the Sinai Peninsula on October 7, 2004. Among the 34 dead were 18 Egyptians, 12 Israelis, two Italians, one Russian and one American-Israeli.

The Egyptian government said the bombers were Palestinians who tried to enter Israel to carry out attacks but failed. In fact, Israeli authorities had warned a month earlier that terrorists were planning attacks in the Sinai, but most Israelis ignored the warning and vacationed there anyway.