After Giza attack
\nThirty \u201cterrorists\u201d were killed in two raids in Giza and the remaining 10 were killed in the North Sinai
\nMONITORING DESK
\nEGYPT
\nEgyptian police killed 40 alleged \u201cterrorists\u201d in a crackdown on Saturday after a roadside bomb hit a tour bus claiming the lives of three Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian guide.
\nThe suspects were killed in separate raids in Giza governorate, home to Egypt\u2019s famed pyramids and the scene of Friday\u2019s deadly bombing, and in the restive Sinai Peninsula, the interior ministry said.
\nThirty \u201cterrorists\u201d were killed in two raids in Giza and the remaining 10 were killed in the North Sinai, a statement said without directly linking them to the tour bus bombing.
\nIt said authorities had received information the suspects were preparing a spate of attacks against state and tourist institutions and churches.
\n\u201cInformation was received by the national security 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,\u201d the ministry said.
\nA security source said the raids took place early Saturday morning, hours after Friday evening\u2019s roadside bombing which officials said hit a tour bus in the Al-Haram district near the Giza pyramids killing the three Vietnamese holidaymakers and their Egyptian guide.
\nEleven other tourists from Vietnam and an Egyptian bus driver were wounded, the public prosecutor\u2019s office said.
\nThere was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, the first attack to target tourists since 2017.
\nSaigon Tourist, the company that organised the trip, said the Vietnamese tourists were \u201con their way to a restaurant for dinner\u201d when the bomb exploded.
\nCompany officials were heading to Cairo on Saturday and plans were made to allow some relatives of the victims to also fly to Egypt.
\nOne of them was Nguyen Nguyen Vu whose sister Nguyen Thuy Quynh, 56, died in the bombing, while her husband, Le Duc Minh, was wounded.
\nThe couple, both aged 56, were in the seafood business, Quynh\u2019s younger brother said.
\n\u201cWe were all very shocked\u2026 My sister and her husband travel quite a lot and they are quite experienced in travelling abroad. Their hobby is travelling,\u201d Vu told AFP.
\n– \u2018Bring my sister home\u2019 –
\nHe said he was applying for a visa for Egypt and hoped to travel on Saturday. \u201cOur wish is that we could bring my sister back home, and I hope that I can settle things well in the next 2-3 days.\u201d
\nFriday\u2019s bombing was the latest blow to Egypt\u2019s vital tourism industry, which has been reeling from turmoil set off by the 2011 uprising that forced veteran president Hosni Mubarak from power.
\n\u201cYesterday\u2019s attack undermines the Egyptian government\u2019s very determined message that the country is safe for tourists,\u201d said Zack Gold, a US-based expert on Middle East security issues.
\nEgypt has been seeking to lure tourists back by touting new archaeological discoveries and bolstering security around archaeological sites and in airports.
\nIt is also planning to open a major museum near the Giza pyramids — the only surviving structures of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
\nIn July 2017, two German tourists were stabbed to death by a suspected jihadist at the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
\nIn October 2015, a bomb claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group killed 224 people on board a passenger jet carrying Russian tourists home from the Sinai peninsula.
\n– Fragile security –
\nWhile tourism has picked up since 2011, the 8.2 million people who visited Egypt in 2017 are still a far cry from the 14.7 million who visited in the year before the uprising.
\nThe blast and the subsequent police raids come as Egypt battles a persistent jihadist insurgency in the North Sinai, which surged after the 2013 overthrow by the army of Mubarak\u2019s Islamist successor Mohamed Morsi.
\nJihadists linked to the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for previous attacks, including against Egypt\u2019s Coptic Christian minority who make up about 10 percent of the population.
\nThe army launched a large-scale operation dubbed \u201cSinai 2018\u201d in February to rid the Sinai of jihadists after an attack on a mosque in the north of the peninsula killed more than 300 people.
\nThe army says that hundreds of suspected jihadists have been killed since the campaign was launched.
\nOn Saturday, Egyptian private and state media outlets carried blurred images purportedly of the jihadists killed in the raids, some appearing bloody and with weapons in their hands.
\n29DEC2018<\/p>\n
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After Giza attack Thirty \u201cterrorists\u201d were killed in two raids in Giza and the remaining 10 were killed in the North Sinai MONITORING DESK EGYPT Egyptian police killed 40 alleged \u201cterrorists\u201d in a crackdown on Saturday after a roadside bomb hit a tour bus claiming the lives of three Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian guide. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n