Officer, soldier shot dead in Cairo suburb attack

The attackers had arrived by sea to launch the onslaught on the beachside Bella Vista Hotel, security sources said.

All three wounded tourists were taken to hospital, where one was treated and discharged, the statement said.

Two police were killed in the shooting, when assailants opened the auto carrying them in the Cairo suburb of Giza.

The assailants were armed with knives when they attacked the hotel, police said.

The attack on the tourists came on a day when Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians were celebrating Christmas in the predominantly Muslim country.

The motives of the attackers in the latest attack appears unclear, with some claiming that the men had aimed to kidnap tourists while others stating that the men had been attempting a robbery.

“Two drugged young men attacked one of our hotel restaurants with fake gun (plastic) and small knives”, the statement said. A group of Islamists from the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood association that is banned in Egypt hurled lit flares and fired from shotguns on Friday at a bus with Israeli tourists at the entrance to the Three Pyramids Hotel.

Islamic State’s Egypt affiliate is waging an insurgency based in the Sinai which has mostly targeted soldiers and policemen.

A restaurant employee, who requested anonymity, told AFP one of the men shouted “there is no god but God” on entering, and carried a black banner that resembled the Islamic State group flag.

The bloody confrontation between government and Islamists has scared off foreign tourists and investors, depriving the Egyptian economy from vital hard currency and foreign capital.

“It is just a bad coincidence I was there”, he added, echoing Egypt’s Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou.

After the Russian plane tragedy, major tourist operators suspended packages to Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, while Russia halted all flights to and from Egypt and Britain suspended air links with Sharm el-Sheikh.

It is likely to raise questions over President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s repeated promises to stamp out militancy in Egypt. Security sources said the tourists boarding the bus were Israeli Arabs.

The instability has threatened Egypt’s important tourism industry.

The country’s tourism industry was dealt several blows in 2015.

There was no word on the condition of the other two.