{"id":812,"date":"2014-03-06T12:32:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T17:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=812"},"modified":"2016-06-28T18:38:39","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T23:38:39","slug":"egyptian-military-offensive-in-the-sinai-follows-tourist-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=812","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian Military Offensive in the Sinai Follows Tourist Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew McGregor<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 6, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Egyptian security forces have responded to the latest terrorist blow to Egypt\u2019s vital tourism industry with a series of raids that have killed dozens of militants and resulted in the detention of many others.<\/p>\n

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Jama\u2019at Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

On February 16, a bomb on a tourist bus carrying South Koreans making the trip from St. Catherine\u2019s monastery to the resort town of Taba killed three tourists and their Egyptian driver, while a further 13 tourists were wounded (al-Jazeera, February 16). The attack was claimed by militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem), who claimed the strike was \u201cpart of our economic war against this regime of traitors\u201d (AFP, February 19). Tourism accounts for over 11 percent of Egyptian GDP and is an important source of foreign currency. The Sinai was the last part of the politically volatile nation to maintain a healthy tourist trade, but this has now been put in jeopardy. The bombing was denounced by the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Gama\u2019a al-Islamiya, a militant Islamist group responsible for the murder of 58 tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor in 1997 (Ahram Online, February 17).<\/p>\n

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) is the Egyptian branch of a Gaza-based Islamist organization. Since its first appearance in the Sinai in the days after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, the group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on oil pipelines, a strike on Israeli troops in 2012, the attempted assassination of Egypt\u2019s interior minister in 2013 and the successful assassination of an important National Security Agency investigator the same year (see Terrorism Monitor, November 28, 2013).<\/p>\n

The tourist bus bombing led to a number of operations as part of the ongoing Egyptian military response to radicalism in the Sinai Peninsula:<\/p>\n