Tourists killed by airstrike in Egypt were in restricted zone
At least two Mexican tourists were among 12 people killed in Egypt
when they were hit by an airstrike after straying into a restricted
area where the military was conducting an operation to eliminate
terrorists, it has emerged.
Survivors of the attack on Sunday said they were bombed by military
helicopters and an aircraft while they stopped for a break in Egypt’s
vast western desert, which borders Libya and is a haven for smugglers.
Mexico’s foreign ministry confirmed that at least two of the dead were Mexican nationals; security and judicial forces in Egypt
told Reuters that eight Mexicans had been confirmed killed. Ten other
people were wounded in the attack, at least six of them Mexicans. They
are being treated at a hospital in suburban Cairo.
Mexico’s foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, demands a full inquiry
after Egyptian security forces killed 12 people and wounded 10 on
Sunday.
A statement from the Egyptian interior ministry
said the police and military operation was “chasing terrorist elements”
in the area when it “accidentally engaged four four-wheel drives
belonging to a Mexican tourist group”.
A tour guide who operates in the Bahariya area told the
Guardian that the group was attacked from the air and from a distance
probably because the vehicles were clearly in an area where tourists
were banned. Pilots would have feared return fire if they flew close to
check who was in the vehicles, the guide said.
“From where the four cars were shot, this is the beginning of the
route smugglers use to smuggle and move around. It is a known area for
smugglers to go in and out from,” said the guide, who had spoken to an
Egyptian survivor.
The guide said the area where the attack happened, which was recently
claimed by a local Islamic State affiliate, was closed to all vehicles.
“But I understand why they went there as it is a common shortcut and a
spot for lunch,” he said. “It is not on asphalt, it is off-road. They
should not have left the asphalt, especially on the west side, this is
completely banned.”
A map showing the location of the attack on Sunday, in which a number of Mexican nationals were killed
The guide said the military operation targeted militants who the
night before had kidnapped a local guide, named as Salah Abu El Kasm,
whom they suspected of collaborating with Egyptian security services.
According to locals, the militants knocked out power to Kasm’s village
and murdered his son in front of him before taking him away.
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“This
was reported to the police and military, but it is not easy to take
action at night so they waited until the second day [Sunday],” the
source said. “The second day the military were moving towards the desert
and they found two cars belonging to the kidnappers and they shot them,
and they found a lot of storage under the ground with a lot of weapons
and chemical weapons as well.
“On the way back from their mission they found these four cars, I
guess they didn’t know who they were as when they shot them they shot
them from far away, not close up.”
He added: “Usually when smugglers travel they put an AK47 in their
cars. So this is why I think instead of the plane coming closer to check
who they are, they shot them from a far distance.”
Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, posted a statement on his
Twitter feed on Monday morning saying his government “condemns these
acts against our citizens” and demanding a thorough investigation.
Jorge Alvarez Fuentes, Mexico’s ambassador to Egypt, and consular
representatives visited the wounded at the Dar al-Fouad hospital in
Cairo where they interviewed six survivors, according to Reuters.
Ibrahim Mehleb, Egypt’s acting prime minister, also visited the
wounded Mexicans. He was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: “This
is a painful incident and I give my deepest condolences to the Egyptian
people and our guest the Mexicans, and I have spoken to the Mexican
ambassador and relayed my condolences.”
At a press conference in Mexico,
the foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, stuck to a Mexican death
toll of “at least two”, saying the victims’ identities were yet to be
confirmed.
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Egypt’s
western desert, which covers almost two-thirds of the country’s
territory, is popular among safari enthusiasts but has previously not
been known as a hotbed of militant activity. Police and military there
have primarily been concerned with combatting smuggling along Egypt’s
border with Libya.
Most visitors to the area are drawn to the Bahariya oasis, described
by the Egyptian tourist authority as a “lush haven set in the midst of
an unforgiving desert”.
Sunday’s killings have underlined the dangers of adventure tourism in
a country at war with Islamist militants. Western embassies have issued
travel advisories against excursions to Bahariya, especially after the
Islamic State said in August that it had beheaded a young Croatian man seized not far from Cairo on the route to the western desert.
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