Luxor massacre: Difference between revisions

Luxor massacre
Djeser-Djeseru (Hatshepsut’s Temple), the location of the attack
Location	Deir el-Bahri, Egypt
Date	17 November 1997
Weapons	Automatic firearms, knives
Deaths	63 (not including attackers)
Injured	> 26

The Luxor Massacre took place on 17 November 1997, at Deir el-Bahri, an archaeological site located across the River Nile from Luxor in Egypt. Deir el-Bahri is one of Egypt's top tourist attractions, most notably for the spectacular mortuary temple of 18th-dynasty female pharaoh Hatshepsut, known as "Djeser-Djeseru."

The attack is thought to have been instigated by exiled Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Group") leaders attempting to undermine the July 1997 "Nonviolence Initiative", an effort to end an Islamist terrorist campaign that had killed hundreds of Egyptians and foreigners since 1992. Specifically, Ayman Zawahiri of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (later of al-Qaeda), Mustafa Hamza, the new emir of the Islamic Group, and Rifai Ahmed Taha, the military leader of the Islamic Group, all hoped a massive terror attack would devastate the Egyptian economy and provoke the government into repression that would kill the initiative and strengthen support for anti-government terrorism.

The attack

In the mid-morning attack, terrorists from the Islamic Group and Jihad Talaat al-Fath ("Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest") massacred 62 people at the attraction. The six assailants were armed with automatic firearms and knives, and disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Temple of Hatshepsut at around 08:45. With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes. The dead included a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons.

The attackers then hijacked a bus, but ran into a checkpoint of armed Egyptian tourist police and military forces. One of the terrorists was wounded in the shootout and the rest fled into the hills where their bodies were found in a cave, apparently having committed suicide together.

Casualties

Four Egyptians were killed, three of them police officers and one of them a tour guide. A total of 59 foreign tourists were killed: 36 Swiss, ten Japanese, six British, four Germans, one French, two Colombian, and a dual-national Bulgarian/British. Twelve Swiss, two Germans, one French, and nine Egyptians were among the wounded.

Reaction

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak partly blamed the United Kingdom for the attacks after that country had granted political asylum to Egyptian terrorist leaders.

After the event Mubarak replaced his Interior Minister, General Hassan al-Alfi, with General Habib al-Adly.

The tourist industry – in Egypt in general and in Luxor in particular – was seriously affected by the resultant slump in visitors and remained depressed until sinking even lower with the September 11 attacks in the eastern United States in 2001, the July 23, 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks, and the 2006 Dahab bombings .

The massacre, however, marked a decisive drop in Islamist terrorists' fortunes in Egypt by turning Egyptian public opinion overwhelmingly against them. Spontaneous demonstrations broke out in Luxor almost immediately against the terrorists, demanding action by the government and leading to a visit by Mubarak to the region a few days later.

Organizers and supporters of the attack quickly realised that the strike had been a massive miscalculation and reacted with denials of involvement. The day after the attack, Islamic Group leader Rifai Taha claimed the attackers intended only to take the tourists hostage, despite the evidence of the immediate and systematic nature of the slaughter. Others denied Islamist involvement completely. Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman blamed Israelis for the killings, and Ayman Zawahiri maintained the attack was the work of the Egyptian police.

See also

• Terrorism in Egypt

External links

• Tourists massacred at temple. 17 November 1997 (BBC News)
• Bin Laden 'behind Luxor massacre', 13 May 1999 (BBC News)