After a violent campaign directed at security forces, Egyptian militants appear to be zooming in on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s most vulnerable point: the economy.

Attacks on two prime tourist sites in the space of eight days are deeply worrying for a government which has staked much of its credibility on reviving the economy after years of political turmoil.

A suicide bomber blew himself up on Wednesday near the ancient Karnak temple in Luxor, wounding four Egyptians.

A week earlier, two police officers were killed in an attack near the Giza Pyramids, hundreds of miles to the north.

Security forces on Thursday dismantled a bomb found at the entrance of the supplies ministry in Cairo, state news agency Mena said yesterday. While the attacks did not kill or harm any tourists, they raise concerns that Islamist insurgents have opened a new, economic front.

Direct attack on tourism would inflict major damage

Egyptian officials from al-Sisi to the Luxor governor were at pains to say that all was well, that this week’s foiled attack showed security forces were on the alert and would protect tourists.

But providing reassurances that some of the world’s most spectacular tourist attractions are safe may prove difficult.

“The perpetrators don’t have to attack in a large way to spook people who are trying to visit the country. All they need to do is have a few incidents here and there to shape perceptions,” said Kamran Bokhari, an expert on the geopolitics of the Middle East and South Asia.

Egypt’s economy has been battered since 2011, when a popular uprising forced autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power. Al-Sisi has announced several mega-projects, garnered billions of dollars in aid from Gulf allies and enforced painful subsidy cuts to try to jumpstart the economy and boost foreign investment.

But a direct attack on tourism, a top foreign currency earner, would inflict major damage and could undermine any confidence in Egypt that al-Sisi has generated.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Magdi Abdel Ghaffar visited the Karnak temple, praised security forces and said the “malicious attempts won’t undermine Egyptian security”. He was quick to mention that tourists knew what happened was a “one-off incident”.

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