CAIRO – The militant group Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis has told tourists to leave Egypt and threatened to attack anyone who stays in the country after a deadline of Feb. 20. The Sinai-based group, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed two South Korean tourists and an Egyptian on Sunday, made the statement on an affiliated Twitter account. “We recommend tourists to get out safely before the expiry of the deadline,” read the tweet, written in English. The warning has not appeared on the group's official website but the Twitter account has been accurate in the past. Attacks by militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July, but the bombing on Sunday of a tourist bus marks a strategic shift to soft targets that could devastate an economy already reeling from political turmoil. Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, Egypt's most active Islamist militant organization, has threatened to topple the interim government installed by army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The group's statement referred to a warning first issued on Feb. 16 urging tourists to leave. The militant group based in the Sinai Peninsula has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on an Egyptian bus in the desert peninsula that killed three South Korean tourists and an Egyptian driver. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis said in a statement posted on militant websites late Monday that one of its "heroes" carried out Sunday's bombing in Taba. Egyptian officials have called the attack a suicide bombing. The statement lashed out at intensified Egyptian military operations in the Sinai Peninsula along the border with Israel targeting the militants' hideouts and vehicles. The Al-Qaeda-inspired group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks, but until now they have targeted primarily police and the military. The group claimed responsibility for downing a military helicopter in Sinai in late January, killing all five crewmembers and the assassination earlier this month of a senior interior ministry aide and carried out a powerful truck bomb outside Cairo's main security directorate. – Agencies
