November 1997 Luxor massacre
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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 attempt 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[1] and provoke the government into repression that would kill the initiative and strengthen support for anti-government terrorism.[2].
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[edit] The attack
In the mid-morning attack, Islamic terrorists from the Islamic Group and Jihad Talaat al-Fath ("Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest") massacred 62 tourists 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 and killed 62 people. With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes, until the floors streamed with blood. The dead included a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons.[3][4]
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.[5]
This attack was notable among Islamist terrorism in that it did not involve any type of bombing, which has been the method of choice for the great majority of Islamic terrorist attacks.
[edit] Casualties
A total of 58 foreign tourists were killed: 36 Swiss, ten Japanese, six Britons, four Germans, one French, one Colombian, and a dual-national Bulgarian/Briton. Four Egyptians were killed, three of them police officers and one of them a tour guide. Twelve Swiss, two Japanese, two Germans, one French, and nine Egyptians were among the wounded.
[edit] 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 Major 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 United States in 2001.
The massacre, however, marked a decisive drop in Islamist terrorists' fortunes in Egypt by turning Egyptian public opinion overwhelmingly against them.[citation needed] Organizers and supporters of the attack reacted with denial. 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 systematic nature of the slaughter. Others denied Islamist involvement completely. Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman blamed Israelis for the killings, and Ayman Zawahiri maintaining the Egyptian police had done it.[6]
The terrorist groups lost the population's support and had nowhere to seek refuge or establish bases of operations in Egypt. Although 1,200 people, many of them foreign visitors or residents but also many hundreds of Egyptians themselves, were killed by terrorist attacks in the preceding years, terrorist activity in Egypt almost completely ceased in the several years following the Luxor attacks.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Tourists massacred at temple. 17 November 1997 (BBC News)
- Bin Laden 'behind Luxor massacre', 13 May 1999 (BBC News)
Coordinates: de:Anschlag von Luxor 1997 he:טבח התיירים בלוקסור nl:Terroristische aanslag in Luxor ja:ルクソール事件 no:Terroraksjonen i Luxor i 1997 pt:Massacre de Luxor
