Long timeline of attacks in short century

These are some, but by no means all of the killings perpetrated by militant groups in Egypt this century:

2004: October 7 A lorry drove into the Hilton hotel in Taba and exploded, killing 31 and injuring 159 as 10 floors of the hotel collapsed. On the same day, two more bombings occurred 50 kilometres south of Taba at campsites at Ras Al Shitan, killing three Israelis and a Bedouin. About half of the victims were foreigners. The Egyptian government said Palestinians were responsible.

2005: July 23 On Egypt’s Revolution Day, a series of bombings targeted Sharm El Sheikh, the resort city at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, killing 88 and wounding more than 150. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a group claiming ties to Al Qaeda, were the first to say they did it, but the Tawhid and Jihad Group in Egypt and the Holy Warriors of Egypt also claimed responsibility.

2006: April 24 On a public holiday to celebrate the Spring Festival, a series of bombs exploded in Dahab, a resort popular with foreign tourists and Egyptians on the Gulf of Aqaba coast of the Sinai Peninsula. At least 23 people died, most of them Egyptians. The 80 wounded included Europeans, Australians, Americans and citizens of other Middle East countries and South Korea. The explosive devices were nail bombs. Egyptian security said the perpetrators were Jama’at Al Tawhid Wal Jihad (Monotheism and Jihad).

2010: December 31 A car bomb exploded outside a Coptic church in Alexandria after the evening service, killing at least 23 and injuring 43. The Egyptian government blamed the Army of Islam.

2015: October 31 Metrojet flight 9268, a Russian-operated charter flight from the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El Sheikh to Saint Petersburg, fell from the sky killing all 224 on board. The victims were mostly Russian tourists. The most probable cause of what was at the time the deadliest terrorist attack in Egypt was a bomb smuggled on board at the departure airport. ISIL has claimed responsibility several times for the attack.

2016: January 8 two militants stormed the Bella Vista hotel in Hurghada on the Red Sea and fatally stabbed two foreign tourists. ISIL claimed responsibility.

2016: December 11 There was an explosion next to Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo, at the church of Saints Peter and Paul. Twenty-nine people – mostly women and children – were killed. The cathedral is the seat of the head of the Coptic Orthodox church. ISIL claimed responsibility.

2017: April 9 Twin suicide bombings killed a total of 45 people and injured 126 on April 9 – Palm Sunday, the start of the Christian Holy Week – during mass at St George’s church in the northern city of Tanta in the Nile Delta and later that day at St Mark’s cathedral in Alexandria. The latter bombing occurred minutes after Pope Tawadros II left the church to follow developments in the Tanta tragedy. The ISIL-affiliated Amaq news agency claimed “a security detachment” of its extremists carried out the attack. Egypt declared a three-month state of emergency.

2017: May 26 On the eve of Ramadan, masked gunmen ambushed a convoy of three vehicles taking Coptic Christians to the remote monastery of St Samuel the confessor in Maghagh, 220km south of Cairo in Minya province. Up to 10 masked men in military uniforms fired on the minibuses, killing at least six people including two small children. They boarded the buses, stealing mobile phones and jewellery from the women and murdering the men. Some men and boys were also removed from the bus and ordered to renounce their Christian faith. When they refused they were shot dead. In total, 28 people were killed. The gunmen drove away in three off-road vehicles. Amaq news agency attributed the attack to “a group belonging to Islamic State”. ISIL, which had vowed to escalate attacks against Christians after Pope Francis’s visit to Egypt the previous month, later claimed responsibility.