Fresh attack on Egyptian tourism as suicide blast, gunfire target Luxor

L A Times ^ | June 10, 2015, 8:40 AM | By Amro Hassan and Laura King

[BenLurkin]

The assault — a suicide explosion and fierce exchange of gunfire — left as many as three attackers dead and at least five other people injured, Egyptian officials and media reports said. It came a week after unidentified gunmen killed two tourist police in a drive-by shooting near the Pyramids of Giza outside Cairo.

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Three attackers armed with bombs and weapons tried to cross the security cordon at Karnak Temple, but were faced by security forces who foiled their attempt,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It also confirmed the deaths of three attackers.

There was no indication that any visitors were close to the explosion or firefight. The complex’s parking lot and entry hall, flanked by shops and vendors’ stalls, sit several hundred yards from the closest entry point to the vast ruins.

The Karnak site is a popular one, but officials quoted by the Associated Press said there were only a handful of visitors and guides in the city-sized complex at the time of the attack. Although summer has not yet begun, daytime temperatures in southern Egypt are routinely above 90 degrees.

Luxor in 1997 was the scene of Egypt’s deadliest attack targeting visitors, when Islamist gunmen massacred more than 60 people, most of them foreign tourists. That attack took place at the Temple of Hatshepsut, on the opposite bank of the Nile, where many pharaonic tombs and temples are located

[Not A Snowbird]

Glad I already visited Egypt. No way I’d go back now.

[Paulie]

It’s long been on my to-do list, but now I won’t go either. As the elders often say, you have to do things while you can; for tomorrow may be too late.

[Dr. Ursus]

We were two hrs. From leaving on January,28th,2011. Now,I’ll never get there. How sad.

[varyouga]

The animals will probably knock the pyramids down.

“No history but Islam”