With bus attack, Egypt’s Islamists may be targeting tourism
Islamists may be targeting tourism, key to economy, to cripple regime
An explosion that ripped through a bus carrying South Korean tourists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing four people, at the weekend, signals a potential escalation in the fight by Islamist militants against the Egyptian government.
The insurgency that sprouted last summer had previously confined itself to targeting Egyptian military and police forces.
If you blame every Islamist in society, you will make an enemy out of all
But as the government continues its broad repression of Islamists in the wake of the military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Mursi in July, the attacks could turn into a much bloodier, guerilla-style conflict, analysts say. "This is more of a challenge to the government and the state's authority than there ever was before," said Kamal Habib, a founding member of Islamic Jihad, a group that was at the forefront of a similar revolt in Egypt in the 1990s but that later renounced violence.
There was no immediate assertion of responsibility for the bus attack, which killed three South Korean tourists - two men and a woman - and the Egyptian bus driver, the foreign ministry in Seoul said. At least 14 South Koreans were wounded.
"We are shocked and enraged at the terrorist bombing on the bus ... and strongly condemn the act," the ministry said. The tourists were all members of the same church group from the central South Korean county of Jincheon.
Habib said the blast indicates that militants have adapted their strategy to try to cripple the government by hitting the country's vital and ailing tourism industry. The military-appointed cabinet has pinned its legitimacy on a return to stability and economic revival after three years of turmoil that began with the Arab spring uprising.
"This is likely the beginning of a new phase" of the conflict between militant Islamists and the state, Habib said.