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| In Egypt, blast rips through tourist bus, killing at least 4 in restive Sinai | In Egypt, blast rips through tourist bus, killing at least 4 in restive Sinai |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| CAIRO — An explosion ripped through a bus full of tourists and killed at least four people, including three South Koreans, on Sunday near Egypt’s border crossing with Israel in the Sinai Peninsula, local media and officials said. | |
| At least 30 foreign tourists were on the bus going from Egypt to Israel when the blast occurred just after 3 p.m. Cairo time, health officials said. In addition to the three South Koreans, the bus’s Egyptian driver was also killed, and 27 other people were injured. | At least 30 foreign tourists were on the bus going from Egypt to Israel when the blast occurred just after 3 p.m. Cairo time, health officials said. In addition to the three South Koreans, the bus’s Egyptian driver was also killed, and 27 other people were injured. |
| The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear, although militants operating in the Sinai Peninsula have targeted police and army vehicles with both roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades in recent months. | The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear, although militants operating in the Sinai Peninsula have targeted police and army vehicles with both roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades in recent months. |
| Egypt’s state television broadcast images of the bus’s charred frame and debris scattered across the highway. The official Middle East News Agency (MENA) said the bus had been parked in a “waiting zone” along the road, 650 feet from the Egyptian side of the border crossing. | |
| The Interior Ministry said in an official statement on its Facebook page that the tourists had traveled from Cairo to Taba, and were waiting to cross into Israel. The bus “stopped a number of times” on the trip, the ministry said, but did not say whether a bomb had been planted along the way. | The Interior Ministry said in an official statement on its Facebook page that the tourists had traveled from Cairo to Taba, and were waiting to cross into Israel. The bus “stopped a number of times” on the trip, the ministry said, but did not say whether a bomb had been planted along the way. |
| There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack. But jihadists fighting Egypt’s military-backed government have escalated their assaults on government forces since the ouster last summer of the Islamist-backed president, Mohamed Morsi, particularly in the already restive Sinai. | There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack. But jihadists fighting Egypt’s military-backed government have escalated their assaults on government forces since the ouster last summer of the Islamist-backed president, Mohamed Morsi, particularly in the already restive Sinai. |
| Militants affiliated with Sinai’s native Bedouin tribesmen targeted Taba previously in the mid-2000s, when insurgents detonated a truck bomb at the town’s Hilton hotel and killed more than 30 people. | Militants affiliated with Sinai’s native Bedouin tribesmen targeted Taba previously in the mid-2000s, when insurgents detonated a truck bomb at the town’s Hilton hotel and killed more than 30 people. |
| Israeli media reported that emergency and medical personnel had mobilized. Reports said the wounded were being treated in both Israeli and Egyptian hospitals. |