Explosion Injures Tourists Near Giza Pyramids

South Africans were hurt on their way from airport
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 19, 2019 10:35 AM CDT
Explosion Rocks Tourist Bus Near Giza Pyramids
Officials inspect a bus that was damaged by a bomb Sunday in Cairo.   (AP Photo/Mohammed Salah)

An explosion injured at least 12 people on a tourist bus in Egypt on Sunday. The bus was taking 25 South Africans from the airport to the Giza pyramids area, Reuters reports; four Egyptians in a car were injured by broken glass. Three of the injured were treated at a hospital, per the BBC. The attack occurred near the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is scheduled to open next year; the museum was not damaged by the explosion. No group claimed responsibility immediately.

"The last time we had an attack on a tourist bus that had been leaving the pyramids in December, no one ended up claiming responsibility," a political analyst at The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy tells Al Jazeera. "Historically these sorts of attacks have been followed by announcements of raids on different militant groups outposts." Indeed, Egypt's security forces are already battling Islamist militants north of the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt's tourist industry has been struggling to recover after the 2011 Arab Spring and the 2015 bombing of a Russian passenger plane. (More terrorism stories.)

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