The Al Qaeda-linked jihadist group Ansar Jerusalem has claimed responsibility for the Sunday bombing of a tourist bus in the Sinai Peninsula.

In a statement released to jihadist forums today, the Sinai-based jihadist group Ansar Jerusalem (Ansar Bayt al Maqdis) claimed responsibility for the bombing of a tourist bus in Taba yesterday. At least three South Korean tourists and the bus’ Egyptian driver were killed in the attack, which officials now believe was carried out by a suicide bomber.

In the statement, which was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, Ansar Jerusalem boasted that “one of its heroes” carried out the attack. “This comes within our assault in the economic war on this traitorous agent regime,” the jihadist group declared.

The Wall Street Journal reported that at least four people were killed and fourteen were wounded. Ansar Jerusalem has reportedly been behind a string of recent attacks, and recently downed an Egyptian military helicopter with an anti-aircraft missile. Its Sunday assault on the South Korean tourist bus claimed the lives of at least three travelers and their Egyptian bus driver. The attack comes amid renewed scrutiny of several White House moves that have chilled Washington’s relationship with Cairo, most prominently a decision made last October to partially freeze aid to Egypt’s army-backed government. The administration insisted at the time that assets used by Egypt for its Sinai counter-terror operations would be exempt from new restrictions, a claim described as untenable by analysts and one that seemed difficult to sustain given the types of weapons – most prominently Apache helicopters – that were withheld. The White House’s move has largely been reversed by recent Congressional allocations.

[Photo: Arirang News / YouTube ]