Tourists Killed in Terrorist Attack in Sinai, Egypt  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A bomb blast ripped through a bus carrying 30 tourists in Sinai, Egypt, today, killing at least two South Korean tourists and the Egyptian bus driver. According to reports, the tourists had completed touring St Catherine's Monastery and were on their way to Israel, when the bomb exploded.
Netizens were left scrambling for information.
According to journalist Kristen McTighe:
AFP, Bloomberg reporting 3 killed in Sinai tourist bus attack. #Egypt state TV in contrast says 4 wounded, no casualties
— Kristen McTighe (@KristenMcTighe) February 16, 2014
She adds:
30 tourists of different nationalities were on the bus attacked in Sinai. Confirmed casualties are Korean. #Egypt
— Kristen McTighe (@KristenMcTighe) February 16, 2014
Firas Al-Atraqchi says:
#Egypt conflicting reports about today's #Sinai bus attack. Security official tells Radio Misr three dead, including the driver. 13 injured.
— Firas Al-Atraqchi (@Firas_Atraqchi) February 16, 2014
ABC News Middle East Correspondent Alexander Marquardt has other information:
32 tourists in Taba #Egypt bus explosion were all S. Korean, acc to Interior Min. Bus coming from St. Catherine, dropping off at Hilton.
— Alexander Marquardt (@MarquardtA) February 16, 2014
And Hamdy Kassem concludes [ar]:
لن يعرف شخص غير صحفى سبب تضارب الأرقام والبيانات حول حادث طابا .. أنها معاناة الصحفى للحصول على المعلومة فى دولة تنكر كل المعلومات
— Hamdy Kassem (@hmkssm) February 16, 2014
Those of us who are not journalists will not know what happened in the Taba bus blast because of the contradicting information and casualty figures. It is a struggle for journalists to get information in a country which denies all information
And if this is not enough, The Big Pharaoh claims the Muslim Brotherhood Twitter account is spreading more mis-information:
Brotherhood official Twitter account (Arabic of course): 3 Zionists were killed in the Taba tourist bus explosion. pic.twitter.com/rguXFEXfZo
— The Big Pharaoh (@TheBigPharaoh) February 16, 2014
Soon enough, photographs surfaced online.
Fatima Said shares this photograph of the remains of a charred bus:
Picture of the bus carrying 30 tourists after explosion. Bus was travelling from Israel to Taba. #Sinai #Egypt pic.twitter.com/3lIUxHKBqL
— Fatima Said (@fattysaid) February 16, 2014
Egyptian blogger and journalist Muhamed Sabry remarks on the photograph saying:
The image of the tourist bus reveals that everyone must be injured in a way or another. It looks like the soldiers bus in north #Sinai
— Sinai سيناء (@muhamedsabry) February 16, 2014
And Amro Ali shares the photograph of the Egyptian bus driver, said to be killed in the blast:
The bus driver known as Am (uncle) Sami, died in the bus blast in #Taba, #RIP to him & all victims pic.twitter.com/RLvbsfqRM7 v @O0onaa #Egypt
— Amro Ali (@_amroali) February 16, 2014
Zeinobia, on Egyptian Chronicles, is alarmed tourists are being targeted. She blogs:
We are back to the days of the 1990s where tourists were a main target. Actually we are back to the 2000s where South Sinai had its share from several terrorist attacks.
Now the attacks moved to South where tourism industry began to catch up.
I am concerned that after targeting the tourists in Taba in 2000s , the security forces unleashed hell abusing locals there affecting their relationship with the state till this day in addition to whatever happening in the North now from military campaign against the terrorist groups things will go from bad to worse to worst.
Meanwhile, Egyptian netizens are kissing their tourism industry goodbye.
Nasry Esmat bitterly tweets [ar]:
احنا كشعب ميفرقش عنده كام واحد مات كبشر ..احنا كل اللي يهمنا السياحة لأسباب اقتصادية بحتة
— Nasry Esmat (@nasry) February 16, 2014
We as a nation are not effected with a number of people killed … all we care about is tourism for economic reasons
Mohamed El Dahshan notes:
Tourism agencies abroad barely market #Egypt tours anymore. Some still offer Middle East tours – which go through Taba. Now this is dead too
— Mohamed El Dahshan (@eldahshan) February 16, 2014
Ashraf Khalil adds:
Even during #Egypt's tourism apocalypse, there were still some religious tourists doing the MT Sinai/holy family tours. Now that's gone too
— ashraf khalil (@ashrafkhalil) February 16, 2014
And Mona Eltahawy fumes:
Who is in charge in #Egypt? Serious question?
— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) February 16, 2014