Egypt | Suicide bomber targets ancient temple in Luxor

A tourist has her picture taken at the ruins of the Karnak Temple in Luxor

A suicide bomber blew himself up yesterday just steps away from the ancient Egyptian temple of Karnak in Luxor, a southern city visited by millions of tourists every year, security and health officials said.
Shortly after the explosion, police exchanged fire with and killed two suspected Islamic militants who had arrived at the sprawling, Nile-side temple together with the suicide bomber, the officials said.
Four people, including two policemen, were wounded in the exchange, according to the Health Ministry in Cairo.
The governor of the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, Mohammed Sayed Badr, said no tourists were hurt in the bombing outside the famed temple. Speaking to The Associated Press over the phone, he said the attack was “an attempt to break into the temple of Karnak.”
“They didn’t make it in,” he added of the attackers.
Yesterday’s attack was the second this month by suspected Islamic militants at or near a major tourist attraction. On June 3, gunmen on a speeding motorcycle opened fire outside the famed Giza Pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo, killing two police officers.
Badr also offered a slightly different version of how the attack unfolded. He said three men carrying bags got out of a car in the temple’s parking lot, which immediately made the police suspicious and policemen ordered them to stop.
One of the three then began running, so the police fired at him and an explosive belt he was wearing blew up. A second man had a gun and started shooting at the police before he was shot and killed. The third attacker was wounded in the shootout and arrested by an undercover policeman.
Badr said the nationalities of the three men have yet to be determined. Badr’s account and that of the security officials could not immediately be reconciled, but that is common in the immediate aftermath of major attacks.
There were only a handful of tourists and Egyptians inside the temple at the time of the late morning attack, added the security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Yesterday’s attack was the first to target world-famous attractions in Luxor since November 1997, when Islamic militants opened fire on tourists at the city’s 3,400-year-old Hatshepsut Temple on the west bank of the Nile, killing 58.
Tourism is the lifeblood of Luxor, home to some of Egypt’s most famous ancient temples and pharaonic tombs, including that of King Tutankhamun. The city has been hit hard by a downturn in foreign visitors during the years of unrest since Egypt’s 2011 uprising.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday’s attack, but it bore the hallmarks of Islamic militants who have been battling security forces in the strategic Sinai Peninsula for years. Extremists in Sinai have targeted tourism sites to try to deny the government a key source of revenue.
Last year, the Sinai-based insurgent group Ansar Beit al-
Maqdis pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, which has destroyed famed archaeological sites in Syria and Iraq, viewing them as idolatrous.
The campaign of violence in Sinai accelerated and spread to other parts of Egypt following the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. The militants say the attacks are in revenge for a massive crackdown on Islamists underway in Egypt. Haggag Salama, Luxor, AP