Egypt Police Foil Suicide Attack at Famed Luxor Temple
Police said they foiled an attempted suicide bombing Wednesday on one of Egypt's most popular ancient attractions in Luxor, in a rare assault on the country's vital tourism sector.
Egypt has been shaken by a tide of attacks claimed by jihadists since the army toppled the democratically elected government two years ago.
Although tourists have avoided most of the carnage, there are fears further unrest could scare off the visitors who are crucial to the economy, where tourism accounts for more than a tenth of GDP.
Police said two attackers were killed and another wounded in a morning shootout close to the Karnak temple in Luxor, a popular site close to the famed Valley of the Kings.
No tourists were hurt, and visitors at the site were kept inside Karnak's ruins during the incident, a senior antiquities ministry official told AFP.
The incident unfolded after a car carrying three men attempted to enter the temple parking lot and was stopped by a suspicious policeman, Tourism Minister Khaled Ramy said in a statement.
"One of the assailants ran out of the car and detonated a suicide device, killing himself instantly," he said.
"The police then surrounded the vehicle, killed one additional assailant inside the vehicle and wounded another."
"We have enhanced security measures in place at all our sites and we continue to take every possible measure to ensure that no harm comes to anyone visiting Egypt," Ramy said.
Health ministry official Nahed Mohamed told AFP the wounded assailant had been shot in the head and was in serious condition.
She also said two civilians and two policemen were wounded in the shootout, but not seriously.
Karnak in central Luxor was built on the ruins of Thebes, the capital of ancient Egypt.
The huge temple dedicated to the god Amon lies in the heart of a vast complex of religious buildings in the city, 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of Cairo.
Tourism in Egypt has faltered since early 2011, when a popular uprising toppled longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak after three decades in power.
Years of instability scared off visitors from overseas, damaging the economy and sending Egypt's foreign currency reserves plunging.
Last year, 10 million tourists visited Egypt, bringing with them $7.5 billion (6.6 billion euros) in revenues. That generated 19.3 percent of currency reserves.
- Attacks on tourists rare -
Jihadists have carried out bombings regularly since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, mainly in the restive Sinai peninsula, where a local affiliate of the Islamic State group has claimed a spate of attacks on security forces.
A government crackdown has left hundreds of Morsi supporters dead, thousands imprisoned and dozens sentenced to death after speedy trials, described by the U.N. as "unprecedented in recent history."
The jihadists claim their attacks are in retribution for the crushing of dissent under the administration of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Although tourists have been largely spared, a suicide bombing last year on a tour bus in the Sinai killed three South Koreans and their Egyptian driver.
The last previous attack on tourists came in 2014, when a 17-year-old French girl was killed in a grenade attack in Cairo's historic Khan el-Khalili bazaar.
Last week, gunmen killed two policemen who worked as guards at the world-famous Giza pyramids in Cairo, in a dawn attack in a deserted area a number of kilometers from the center of the site.
Luxor itself has had to deal with numerous blows, including a deadly hot air balloon crash in 2013 that killed 19 tourists.
The town took several years to recover from a 1997 massacre when Islamist gunmen open fire on tourists at an ancient temple complex, killing 58 foreigners and their four Egyptian guards.
Source: Agence France Presse
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