On February 25, 1986, around 25,000 conscripts of the

Central Security Forces The General Security and Central Security Forces ( ar, قوات الأمن العام و الأمن المركزي, Quwwāt al-Amn al- Amm wa Quwwāt al-Amn al-Markazī, often shortened to ar, الأمن المركزي, Al-Amn al-Markazī) is ...

(CSF),

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian paramilitary force, staged violent protests in and around

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. The riot came as a reaction to the rumour that their three-year compulsory service would be prolonged by one additional year without any additional benefits or rank promotion. The incited conscripts targeted tourist areas and destroyed two hotels. The regime of

Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...

relied on the

Armed Forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

to crush the mutiny, thus when the poorly paid and poorly armed CSF mutinied, the military was sent in to restore order. The

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

deployed tanks and armoured personnel carriers and commando snipers to hunt down the rebelling conscripts, most of whom were unarmed or armed only with shields, batons, and assault rifles. In

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

and near

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...

, the Army Aviation and the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

used

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

and

fighter jets Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

to attack the rebelling conscripts, causing many deaths. At least four to five helicopters, and three fighter jets, were used in the operation. The Air Force officer in command of the operation was

Ahmed Shafik Ahmed Mohamed Shafik ZakiAlso spelled: ''Shafiq''. ( ar, أحمد محمد شفيق زكى, ; born 25 November 1941) is an Egyptian politician and former presidential candidate. He was a senior commander in the Egyptian Air Force and later ser ...

, as commander of all MiG-21 fleets in the Central Military Zone. The riot lasted for three days, more than 8000 died mostly CSF personnel, according to official reports.Europa Publications Limited, ''The Middle East & North Africa'', Volume 50: p.303 Over 20,000 conscripts were dismissed from service with no benefits, and the agitators received

correctional punishment Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

after being tried before State Security Court for

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

, violent riots, and

insubordination Insubordination is the act of willfully disobeying a lawful order of one's superior. It is generally a punishable offense in hierarchical organizations such as the armed forces, which depend on people lower in the chain of command obeying orders ...

according to

penal code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

. Some reports related that mutiny to a conspiracy against the

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

in charge by then (Gen. Ahmed Roshdy) due to his policies. After the suppression the government promised to overhaul the force by raising its entry standards, increasing payment and bettering living conditions in their camps.

References

{{Authority control 1986 in Egypt 1986 riots Arab rebellions

Republic of Egypt Riots and civil disorder in Egypt

See also

References