Luxor massacre

    Date: Nov. 17, 1997.

    Place: Luxor, Egypt.

    Incident: Islamist extremists killed fifty-eight tourists and four Egyptians at the Temple of Hatshepsut in the Valley of the Kings. Some of those who were shot were also slashed with knives.

    Context: The attack was the deadliest in a five-year string of attacks on tourist buses and trains, especially in southern Egypt.

    Known or presumed perpetrators: The Islamist organization al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) claimed responsibility for the attack but said the killers had intended only to hold the tourists hostage.

    Impact: The attack at Luxor led to a renewed government crackdown on Islamist militants. It also resulted in a widespread outcry against terrorist attacks aimed at innocent civilians. The Luxor attack was the last significant terrorist incident firmly attributed to Gama'a.

    One of the bloodiest terrorist attacks occurred on November 17, 1997, in Luxor, Egypt, at the historic Tomb of Hatshepsut site. Islamist gunmen killed sixty-two people, including fifty-eight tourists and four Egyptians. Some victims were slashed after being shot. In one case, a shooting victim was cut from neck to navel, and a leaflet was stuffed into the wound.

    The attack was carried out by members of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group, also known as IG). This radical Islamist group had claimed responsibility for several attacks aimed at tourists over the previous five years. None of the earlier attacks approached the scale or viciousness of the Luxor assault.

    In addition to four Egyptians, victims of the attack included 34 Swiss tourists, eight Japanese, five Germans, four Britons, one French citizen, one Colombian, and one Bulgarian/Briton.

    The attack on the tourists at Luxor was carried out by six men wearing black uniforms and posing as police. Tourists who survived said the attackers looked like men under the influence of drugs. For forty-five minutes, the attackers killed sixty-four people and wounded twenty-six.

    The six attackers escaped into the nearby desert before being tracked down and killed by the police a few hours after the attack.

    The attack on Luxor came at the end of a long string of attacks on tourists in Egypt for five years. Most of the preceding attacks were either claimed by the Gama'a group or blamed on it. Among these attacks:

    • Oct. 1, 1992: Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) gunmen fire at a Nile cruiser with 140 Germans aboard. Three Egyptians are injured.
    • Oct. 21, 1992: A British woman is killed, and two British men are wounded in an ambush on a tourist bus.
    • Nov. 12, 1992: Five Germans and two Egyptians are wounded in a bus ambush near Qena, Egypt.
    • Jan. 7, 1993: A tourist bus is bombed in Cairo with no injuries.
    • Feb. 26, 1993: A bomb in central Cairo kills two foreigners and one Egyptian and injures twenty other people.
    • Mar. 16, 1993: Five tourist buses are damaged by a bomb outside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
    • June 8, 1993: A bomb near a tour bus on Pyramids Road in Cairo killed two Egyptians and injured twenty-two others, including five British tourists.
    • Sep. 15 and 18, 1992: Militant Muslims fire on two cruise boats on the Nile with no injuries.
    • Dec. 27, 1993: Gama'a claims responsibility for a gun and bomb attack on a tour bus in Cairo that injured eight Austrians and eight Egyptians.
    • Feb. 14-23, 1994: Gama'a claims responsibility for four incidents in just over a week: shooting at a bus carrying Romanian tourists in southern Egypt; firing on a Nile cruiser; and two attacks on trains in Assiut, Egypt, in which several tourists were hurt.
    • Mar. 4-13, 1994: Gama'a gunmen fired on a cruiser fatally wounding a German tourist, attacked a train in southern Egypt, injuring eleven, and fired on a Nile cruiser, injuring no one.
    • Aug. 26, 1994: An attack on a bus in southern Egypt killed a Spanish boy; Gama'a claimed responsibility.
    • Sep. 27, 1994: Gunmen attack the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, killing two Germans and two Egyptians.
    • Oct. 23, 1994: A British tourist dies, and three are wounded in a machinegun attack on their minibus in southern Egypt.
    • Nov. 6, 1994: Gunmen fire on a Nile cruiser in southern Egypt, causing no damage or injuries.
    • Dec. 26, 1994: Gunmen open fire on a train in southern Egypt; no one is injured.
    • Jan. 12, 1995: Gunmen fire on a train in southern Egypt, wounding two Argentine tourists and four Egyptians.
    • Nov. 9-10, 1995: Ten people are wounded by gunmen attacking a train in southern Egypt on November 9; the next day, two Europeans are shot on another train. Gama'a issued a statement warning tourists to leave Egypt immediately.
    • Nov. 19, 1995: A gun attack on a train north of Aswan kills one train worker.
    • Nov. 29, 1995: Gunmen open fire on a tourist train headed for southern Egypt; no one is hurt.
    • Jan. 26, 1996: Gunmen opened fire on a passenger train in southern Europe, injuring one Egyptian.
    • Apr. 18, 1996: Gunmen kill seventeen Greek tourists outside a hotel in Cairo near the Pyramids.
    • Sep. 18, 1997: Six Germans are killed in an attack outside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

    Impact

    The Luxor attack resulted in a crackdown on Islamist militants by the Egyptian government. Jailed leaders of Gama'a offered to negotiate a truce, but the offer was ignored by the government of President Hosni Mubarak.

    The attack also cost Gama'a public support. Egyptians near Luxor demonstrated against the Islamist group and criticized attacks on innocent civilians.

    Tourism to Egypt's historic Valley of the Kings was adversely affected for a short period. Many tourists heeded previous warnings by Gama'a to leave Egypt. A month after the attack, few tourists were found in the town, which depended heavily on tourism.

    Several “behind the scenes” figures of the Luxor massacre would later go on to much greater public notoriety. The Luxor terrorists were found to possess materials demanding the release of cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. At the time of the Luxor attack, Rahman was imprisoned in the United States for terror plots to destroy New York City landmarks. This included an actual attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. The group Al Gama'a claimed that the Luxor attackers planned to hold several captured tourists hostage to force the release of Rahman.

    Rahman was also an inspirational figure to Saudi Arabian terrorist Osama bin Laden. Following the attack, bin Laden was assessed to have financed the Luxor operation. Bin Laden would later become the target of a massive manhunt following his role in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Bin Laden was captured and killed in a 2011 US special operations raid at his compound hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 

    Bibliography

    "Bloodbath at Luxor."The Economist, 20 Nov. 1997, www.economist.com/international/1997/11/20/bloodbath-at-luxor. Accessed 25 Sept. 2023.

    Dickey, Christopher, and Joseph Contreas. "A New Breed of Killers." Newsweek, 30 Nov 1997, www.newsweek.com/new-breed-killers-170914. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024

    Gauch, Sarah. "Terror Attack That Cost Egypt Billions Now Costs Militants Support of People." Christian Science Monitor, 17 Dec. 1997, www.csmonitor.com/1997/1217/121797.intl.intl.4.html. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

    Plett, Barbara. "World: Middle East Bin Laden 'Behind Luxor Massacre.'" BBC News, 13 May 1999, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle‗east/343207.stm. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

    "Terrorism 20 Years after the Luxor Tragedy." Swiss Info.ch, 17 Nov. 2020, www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/killings-in-egypt‗terrorism-20-years-after-the-luxor-tragedy/43678412. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.