November 1997 Luxor massacre
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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 Memorial Temple of 18th-dynasty female pharaoh Hatshepsut, known as "Djeser-Djeseru".
In the mid-morning attack, Islamic terrorists from Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Group") and Jihad Talaat al-Fath ("Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest"), both of which are suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda massacred 62 tourists at the attraction. The assailants, who numbered six and were armed with automatic firearms and knives, were disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Temple of Hatshepsut at around 08:45 and massacred 62 people, their modus operandi including beheadings and disembowellings. The attackers then hijacked a bus, but armed Egyptian tourist police and military forces arrived soon afterwards and engaged in a gun battle with the six terrorists, who were later killed or committed suicide.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak partly blamed Great Britain 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.
A total of 58 foreign tourists were killed: 35 Swiss, 10 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.
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 New York in 2001.
