Egyptian security forces say they have killed 40 militants in raids on their hideouts one day after a bomb attack on a tourist bus near the Giza pyramids left four dead.
In a statement released on Saturday, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said 40 militants were killed by security forces during raids in the Sinai Peninsula and the Greater Cairo area.
It said 10 of the militants were killed when the forces stormed their hideout in el-Arish, a coastal city in the turbulent north of Sinai.
Another 14 were killed in the Cairo suburb of October 6 and 16 more in a housing project on a highway heading west from Cairo.
It said the militants were preparing for attacks on government and tourism facilities, army and police personnel as well as Christian churches.
The statement came hours after a bomb targeted a tourist bus in Cairo, killing three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide.
The tourists were heading to a sound and light show at the pyramids, which they had also visited earlier in the day, said Lan Le, 41, who was in the bus but unhurt.
She said: "We were going to the sound and light show and then suddenly we heard a bomb. It was terrible, people screaming. I don't remember anything after."
Officials said the bus was travelling in the Marioutiyah area near the pyramids when the roadside bomb went off.
Egypt has battled Islamic militants for years in the Sinai Peninsula in an insurgency that has occasionally spilt over to the mainland, hitting minority Christians or tourists.
However, Friday's bus attack was the first to target foreign tourists in almost two years.
