Gunmen kill 60 in Egypt

LUXOR, Egypt - Gunmen thought to be Islamic militants opened fire on foreign tourists gathered at an ancient temple on the Nile River yesterday, killing at least 57 foreigners and three Egyptians in the country's deadliest terrorist attack by anti-government extremists.

The gunmen launched their attack about 8:45 a.m. as tourists were arriving in buses at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, a stunning sandstone edifice at the base of a cliff near Luxor's world-renowned Valley of the Kings. Most of the victims were Japanese, Swiss and German tourists killed in a spray of gunfire as they stood in a courtyard in front of the massive three-level temple, authorities said.

About 25 people, 16 of them foreigners, were wounded in the attack. Many of the injured were evacuated by air ambulance to Cairo.

Badawy Ahmed Salem, a cab driver, said the gunmen fired at tourists on every level of the temple. "Then they started getting out knives and stabbing people," he said. "They were pulling tourists like sheep on the floor and slaughtering them. ... We were up to our knees in blood. Even those who did not die will be dead psychologically."

Police exchanged fire with the gunmen, killing one at the scene while the rest fled in a commandeered bus. Over the course of the next several hours, police killed five more gunmen when they sought refuge in nearby desert, authorities said.

The attack was the most lethal incident of violence in Egypt since Islamic fundamentalists launched their campaign to topple the secular, military-backed government of President Hosni Mubarak in 1991.

Coming after more than a year of relative calm, and repeated claims of victory by government security officials, the violence served as a brutal reminder of the continued terrorist threat in the Arab world's most populous and, by some reckonings, influential country.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But suspicion centered on the Islamic Group and Islamic Jihad, Egypt's two main militant organizations, and a witness said the attackers' red bandannas bore the Arabic words for Islamic Group. The two organizations' targets have included police, government officials, secular intellectuals and, occasionally, foreign tourists in six years of violence that has killed more than 1,000 people on all sides.

Yesterday's attack was a major setback for Egypt's tourist industry, which has undergone a renaissance of late after several years in the doldrums caused by previous episodes of violence. Tourism is a mainstay of the Egyptian economy and travel agents braced for a wave of cancellations just before the busy holiday travel season.

11-18-97