According to NBC News, group of masked gunmen held up a tourist bus in south Sinai earlier today (February 3) and abducted two American tourists, both women, and their guide before fleeing.
The tourists were among a group traveling from St. Catherine's Monastery, at the foot of Mount Sinai, to the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.
Reportedly, the motivation for the kidnapping was to demand the release of relatives from Egyptian jails, in exchange for the hostages.
COMMENT: The kidnapping occurred just days after Bedouins in north Sinai briefly seized 25 Chinese workers to demand the release of Islamic relatives detained over bombings in the peninsula between 2004 and 2006.
For the benefit of our readers, strange, peculiar events are beginning to occur in post-revolution Egypt, and most of them are not good for foreign travelers. As most of you know, a French tourist was shot and killed in Sharm el Sheikh last weekend, raising concerns over security in the popular resort area. Then there is the deaths of 71 people at a soccer game as police stood by as bystanders.
Most alarming is the need for a group of US citizens to seek refuge at the American Embassy in Cairo, after not being permitted to leave the country.
The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood has won a substantial majority in the Egyptian Parliament should also be an indicator of more bad news for the future. This could well turn international tourism in Egypt upside down if Islamic conservatives get their way.
Such possibilities include segregated beaches, only married couples being permitted to share the same accommodations and a dramatic change in the consumption of alcohol.
