Egyptian police kills 40 'terrorists' after raid on tourist bus

Egyptian police has killed 40 suspected terrorists in separate raids on Saturday following a bomb targeting tourists who were headed to the Giza Pyramids on Friday.

At least

four people were on Friday killed others sustained injuries after a roadside

bomb exploded and hit a tourist bus near the Giza Pyramids in Egypt.

 Three of the dead were Vietnamese tourists and

an Egyptian tour guide whereas 11 Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian driver

sustained injuries.

According to the Egyptian interior ministry, raids in

the Giza governorate killed 30 terrorists while the rest were killed in the

North Sinai.

The statement said that authorities acted on information

that terrorists were preparing to launch a series of attacks on tourist

attractions and churches and swung into action.

Reports

from Egypt indicated that that an Explosive Improvised Device hidden near a

wall on Marioutiya street exploded hitting the tourist  bus on Friday

The

tourists were headed to a sound and light show at the pyramids where they had

been earlier when their bus was hit.

The

casualties were however evacuated before being treated at Al Haram hospital.

According

to the Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, the bus had not followed the

path it was supposed to take where it would have been secured by police.

Egypt

has been battling Islamic militants for several years especially in the Sinai

Peninsula but the insurgency has occasionally spilled over to the mainland targeting

minority Christians and tourists.

This is

however the first attack targeting foreign tourists in over two years and no

militant group has yet claimed responsibility over the attack.

The

previous attack happened in February 2014, when Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a

militant group which later pledged allegiance to Isis, claimed responsibility

for a bomb attack that hit a bus at the Taba border killing four people and injured

30 others.

 The Friday attack is  however a blow to Egypt’s tourism industry

which is trying to recover following years of decline due to political turmoil

and violence after the 2011 uprising that led to toppling of then President

Hosni Mubarak.

The

country has of recent started campaigns to woo tourists back after the 2011

violence.

According

to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism has for many years been the

man driver of the country’s economy accounting for  11% of the country’s GDP which is 375 billion

Egyptian pounds or roughly 16 billion British pounds in the year 2017.