The Luxor massacre was the killing of 62 people, mostly tourists, on 17 November 1997, at Deir el-Bahari, an archaeological site and major tourist attraction across the Nile from Luxor, Egypt.

Attack

Deir el-Bahari is one of Egypt's top tourist attractions, notable for the spectacular Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, an 18th Dynasty pharaoh. The temple is also known as Djoser-Djeseru (Holy of Holies in ancient Egyptian). In the mid-morning attack, six gunmen killed 58 foreign nationals and four Egyptians. The assailants were armed with automatic firearms and knives, and disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at around 08:45. They killed two armed guards at the site. With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes, during which many bodies, especially of women, were mutilated with machetes. The body of an elderly Japanese man was found mutilated. A leaflet was discovered stuffed into his body that read "no to tourists in Egypt" and was signed " Omar Abdul Rahman's Squadron of Havoc and Destruction - the Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Islamic Group". The dead included a five-year-old English child, Shaunnah Turner, and four Japanese couples on honeymoon. There were 26 survivors. The attackers then hijacked a bus, but ran into a

checkpoint Checkpoint may refer to: Places * Border checkpoint, a place on the land border between two states where travellers and/or goods are inspected * Security checkpoint, erected and enforced within contiguous areas under military or paramilitary co ...

of armed

Egyptian National Police , ') , mottotranslated = Police of the people ( ar, شرطة الشعب, ') Counter-terrorism and hostage rescue Combat all types of crimes Maintaining public health Achieve the tranquility of the citizen , formedyear = 1878 ( years) , for ...

and military forces. One of the terrorists was wounded in the subsequent shootout and the rest fled into the hills where their bodies were found in a cave, apparently having committed suicide together. One or more al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya leaflets were found calling for the release of Omar Abdel-Rahman from a U.S. prison, stating that the attack had been carried out as a gesture to exiled leader Mustafa Hamza, or declaring: "We shall take revenge for our brothers who have died on the gallows. The depths of the earth are better for us than the surface since we have seen our brothers squatting in their prisons, and our brothers and families tortured in their jails".

Casualties

Most of the victims were foreign tourists. Most of the casualties were from Switzerland, with 36 of its citizens killed. The youngest victim was a 5-year-old British child.

Responsibility

It is thought to have been instigated by exiled leaders of al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya, an Egyptian Islamist organization, attempting to undermine the organization's July 1997 " Nonviolence Initiative", to devastate the Egyptian economy and provoke the government into

repression Repression may refer to: * Memory inhibition, the ability to filter irrelevant memories from attempts to recall * Political repression, the oppression or persecution of an individual or group for political reasons * Psychological repression, the p ...

that would strengthen support for anti-government forces.Wright, ''The Looming Tower'', (2006), pp. 256–7 However, the attack led to internal divisions among the militants, and resulted in the declaration of a ceasefire. el-Zayat, Montasser, "The Road to al-Qaeda", 2004. tr. by Ahmed Fakry In June 2013, the group denied that it was involved in the massacre.

Reaction

The attack took place an hour before the

state visit A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country, at the invitation of the head of state of that foreign country, with the latter also acting as the official host for the duration of the state visit. Speaking for the host ...

of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Prince-Consort Claus. Following the attack, then president Hosni Mubarak replaced

interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

General Hassan Al Alfi with General Habib al-Adly. The Swiss Federal Police "later determined that bin Laden had financed the operation".Wright, ''The Looming Tower'', (2006), p.258 The tourist industry in Egypt, and particularly in Luxor, 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

2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks The 2005 Sharm El Sheikh bombings were committed by Islamist group Abdullah Azzam Brigades on 23 July 2005 in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El Sheikh, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Eighty-eight people were killed by the thre ...

, and the

2006 Dahab bombings The Dahab bombings of 24 April 2006 were three bomb attacks on the Egyptian resort city of Dahab, in the Sinai Peninsula. The resort town is popular with Western tourists and Egyptians alike during the holiday season. At about 19:15 Egypt sum ...

. The massacre marked a decisive drop in Islamist terrorists' fortunes in Egypt by turning public opinion overwhelmingly against them. Terrorist attacks declined dramatically following the backlash from the massacre. 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, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya leader Refa'i Ahmed Taha claimed the attackers intended only to take the tourists hostage, despite 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 Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with a ...

maintained the attack was the work of the Egyptian police.

References

External links