by Ann Williams
BUS AMBUSH
It was in 1992 that the series of bomb attacks on Egyptian targets began, with a warning from the main Islamic militant group Gama’a al-Islamiya that tourists should not enter the province of Qena, renowned for its ancient archaeological treasures from the times of the Pharaohs. The warning came in September, and in October, gunmen opened fire on a ship cruising along the Nile filled with German tourists. No one was killed, but the Egyptian crew were injured. Next, in the same month, came the ambush of a tourist bus, in which a British woman was killed and two British men injured. This was the first time a foreign tourist had been killed as a result of terrorist attacks in Egypt.
Bomb attacks continued into the following year, targeting tourist buses and cruise boats. The terrorists also began to bomb restaurants and hotels in Cairo, the nation’s capital. Many were injured in the attacks, some seriously, while nine people in all were killed: a Turk, a Swede, an Italian, a Frenchman, two Americans and three Egyptians. In some cases, Gama’a al-Islamiya claimed responsibility; in others, such as the attack on a luxury hotel in Cairo, the assailant was thought to be mentally disturbed. Whatever the case, Egypt was becoming a dangerous place for tourists to visit, a situation that threatened to do lasting damage to the country’s well-established, successful tourist industry.
TOURIST WARNING
In 1994, the assaults on tourists continued: five people died, and many more were injured as gunmen ambushed buses, opened fire on cruise boats, attacked trains and made raids on holiday resorts. In most cases, Gama’a al-Islayamiya claimed responsibility. Yet little was known about the group, other than that they were dedicated to the overthrow of Mubarak’s undemocratic government. It also became clear that they focused their attacks on their enemies within Egypt, rather than taking on American or international targets, who would have been very powerful adversaries.
In 1995, the random attacks continued, killing two European tourists on a train and wounding many more. At this stage, Gama’a issued a warning to all foreign tourists to leave the country immediately. The following year, 17 Greek tourists and an Egyptian were gunned down outside a hotel in Cairo in the worst atrocity the country had seen so far. But there was a great deal worse to come.
MASSACRE AT LUXOR
Up to this point, the random snipings at tourist targets had been seen as a problem for travellers in Egypt, but not an insuperable one. In 1997, all that changed. In September, there was another attack, killing several tourists; but on 17 November, came an all-out offensive at Luxor. Muslim terrorists launched an attack on tourists at Deir el-Bahri, who were visiting the famous memorial temple to the female pharaoh Hatshepsut there. During the morning, six gunmen armed with automatic guns and knives, posing as security officers, followed a group of visitors to the temple, and proceeded to launch a ferocious attack on them. According to reports, the assailants actually beheaded and disembowelled many of their victims. When Egyptian police arrived, a gun battle ensued, in which all six of the terrorists were killed.
This horrifying event was met with worldwide outrage. Most of the tourists killed were Swiss, but there were also Japanese, British, German, French, Colombian and Bulgarian victims. Several Egyptians also died. President Mubarak reacted angrily to international criticism, blaming Great Britain for granting political asylum to Egyptian terrorists, but he also made changes in his cabinet after the event. Security was also tightened round all tourist centres.
Not surprisingly, there was a large downturn in tourism after the Luxor massacre, and the industry did not begin to recover for several years afterwards. During this time, having achieved their aim, the militants remained silent – until 2004, when the trouble began once again.
SUICIDE MOTORCYCLE BOMBER
The killings began once more in 2004 in the Red Sea villages of Taba and Ras Shitan, where 34 people, mostly visitors from Israel, met their deaths and over 100 people were injured. The following year, on April 7, a spectacular attack horrified onlookers as a suicide bomber drove his motorcyle into the bazaar of Khan al-Khalili and a home-made nail bomb detonated, killing two tourists and injuring around 18 people. Body parts and debris were scattered over the bazaar in a scene of carnage. This time, a previously unknown extremist group calling itself the Islamic Brigades of Pride claimed responsibility.
Then, on April 30, a suspected bomber who was being chased by the police, jumped off a bridge in Cairo, detonating a bomb as he did and killing himself. Two hours later, two female militants opened fire on a bus in Cairo and wounded two passengers, before turning their guns on themselves. A group known as the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, named after a Palestinian militant, claimed responsibility, stating that the attacks were in revenge for arrests of Islamic militants that had been made in connection with the Red Sea attacks.
EXPLODING CARS
The situation in Egypt was clearly becoming more and more tense, and it was only a matter of time before another appalling atrocity was committed. It took place at the Red Sea resort of Sharma el-Sheikh, ironically known as the ‘city of peace’ because of its relaxing atmosphere, and also because several international peace conferences had been held there.
On July 22, Egypt’s National Day, a suicide car bomber struck the Old Market district of the city at 1.00 a.m., killing 17 Egyptians gathered in a coffee house there. Meanwhile, not far away, another suicide bomber rammed his car, packed with explosives, into Ghazala Garden Hotel. Not long afterwards, a bomb planted a few streets away in a car park near the beach detonated. The bombs all went off in the night, when the streets, bars and markets were packed with people. The total death toll of the Sharma el-Sheikh atrocities was 88, with more than 200 people injured.
PEACE PROTEST
After the bombings, the local population took to the streets in protest, marching past the wreckage and demanding an end to terrorism. Yet less than a year later, another bombing occurred, this time at the Red Sea resort of Dahab, in which three bomb blasts killed 20 people and injured almost 100 people.
Currently, there is some debate, both within Egypt and internationally, about the aims of the terrorists. Some believe that the militant groups, which include Gama’a al-Islayama, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Islamic Brigades of Pride and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, seek first and foremost to overthrow the Mubarak regime, which they see as oppressive and corrupt. (Many other nonviolent, democratically inclined political opponents of Mubarak share this view of his regime, of course.) Other commentators argue that the terrorists are no longer just targeting foreign tourists in general, but that the attacks are specifically anti-American in nature – significantly, many of the attacks have occurred since the incarceration of Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, the spiritual leader of Gama’a al-Islayama, for his part in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre. But whatever the truth, the fact remains that in the near future, terror attacks in Egypt look set to continue; and that innocent people, both Egyptian nationals and foreigners, will continue to pay the price for ideological conflict there.
Mumbai Massacre
The series of blasts . . . are shocking and cowardly attempts to spread a feeling of fear and terror among our citizens. My heart reaches out and grieves for all those affected by these blasts and who have lost their near and dear ones . . .
Manmohan Singh, Indian prime minister
On July 11, 2006, a series of bombs exploded on the Western Railway, Mumbai, in the suburbs of the city. It was the worst attack to take place in Mumbai for over a decade: 207 people died, and hundreds more were injured, some severely. Afterwards a terrorist organization called Lashkar-e-Qahhar claimed responsibility for the bombing, apparently as retaliation for the political oppression of Muslim minorities in the regions of Kashmir and Gujrat. However, Lashkar later denied that any of their members were involved, as did another radical group, the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Eventually, police arrested four men, one a member of Lashkar and three members of SIMI.
A LIVING NIGHTMARE<
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Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is the financial capital of India and has one of the largest and busiest commuter railway systems in the world, carrying more than 6,000,0000 people to work and back every day. On the evening of July 11, the usual rush hour crush began as office workers made their way home to the suburbs on the city’s Western railway. Suddenly, between 6.24 and 6.35 p.m. local time, seven bombs detonated, causing complete pandemonium. Eyewitnesses spoke of bodies being flung onto the railway tracks by the force of the blast, while many of those still alive tried to jump off the trains, only to be run over by trains coming in the other direction. (Most of the trains were moving when the bombs went off.) A shopkeeper living near one of the railway tracks said that the explosion he heard was so powerful he thought he had been struck by lightning. Thus, in just over 10 minutes, what had been an ordinary evening on the public railway had become a living nightmare.
As television crews moved in, viewers across the world saw images of trains whose doors and windows had been blown off by the blasts, and railway tracks with luggage, clothes and shoes scattered all over them. They watched as dazed commuters, covered in blood, walked from the wreckage, and emergency workers fought through the piles of twisted metal to rescue those who had been trapped below. Hospitals around the city were inundated with casualties, and many found it difficult to cope. Further chaos was caused by the collapse of the mobile phone network, so that emergency services could not communicate with each other, and stranded commuters were left unable to phone home.
To compound the problems, Mumbai was experiencing heavy rains in the monsoon season, and there was flooding in many parts of the city. This initially hampered the rescue operation considerably, but the situation improved when citizens who had been unharmed in the attacks began to help the victims, walking them to ambulances and giving them first aid where possible.
HIGH ALERT
The bombs had all been hidden in trains running from Churchgate, in the city centre, to residential areas in the suburbs of the city. They had been placed in the first-class ‘general’ carriages, rather than the ‘ladies’ carriages reserved for women only. When they went off, the trains were nearing their destinations, at Borivali, Bhayandar, Jogeshwari, Khar Road, Bandra, Mahim and Matunga Road. Later, a bomb disposal unit defused another bomb planted at Borivali.
Immediately after the bombs detonated, authorities closed down the entire Mumbai railway system, and the city was put on high alert. India’s capital city, Delhi, was also put on high alert as the government and security services struggled to find out what was happening. Hundreds of thousands of commuters in Mumbai were left stranded, while an atmosphere of panic began to build up. The Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh appealed to the public to keep calm, and comdemned the attacks as ‘shocking and cowardly attempts to spread a feeling of fear and terror among our citizens’. In Pakistan, political leaders also denounced the attack as ‘a despicable act of terrorism’. But as yet, no one knew who was responsible.
BOMB TARGET
Initially, Home Minister Shivrah Patil told the media that no one had immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. He added that the government had received some information beforehand that an attack was going to take place; however, the place and the time of the attack had not been divulged, so the authorities had been at a loss as to how to react.
Mumbai had been a target for bomb attacks in the past: in 1993, a series of bomb blasts in the city had killed more than 250 people. Bombings in various parts of India had continued since that time; just hours before the Mumbai attack, a string of grenade bombs had been thrown in the city of Srinagar, killing seven people.
In the days that followed this latest atrocity, police detained around 350 people for questioning. Suspects included members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was outlawed by the Indian government in 2002 because of suspected involvement in terror attacks across the country; and Lashkar-e-Toiba (‘the army of the pure’), one of the largest terrorist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, which had also been outlawed by the government.
MORE ATTACKS THREATENED
On July 14, a hitherto little-known Islamic fundamentalist organization calling itself Lashkar-e-Qahhar sent an email to an Indian television channel claiming responsibility for the bombing. It also threatened attacks on important symbolic sites such as the Gateway of India in Mumbai, the Red Fort in New Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra. The authorities investigated the claim and tried to track down the sender of the e-mail, but no firm evidence emerged.
Next, a spokesperson for the international Islamic fundamentalist group al-Qaeda made a telephone call claiming that the attack had been made in response to ‘Indian oppression and suppression of minorities, particularly Muslims’. However, this claim was not substantiated either.
When forensic experts examined the bombs planted, using up-to-date chromatography and scanning techniques, they concluded that all the bombs had been planted at the central Churchgate station, where all the trains had been departing from on the evening of July 11. However, the forensic investigation as yet has yielded no more clues as to who was behind the attack.
SUSPECTED TERRORISTS
On the basis of their investigations, police made three arrests on July 21. Two of the men were arrested in the state of Bihar, while the third was picked up in Mumbai. A fourth suspect, Abdel Karim Tunda, was arrested in Kenya. Tunda was high on the list of India’s most wanted terrorists and was thought to be a major player in the Islamic fundamentalist group Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Lashkar-e-Toiba is the subject of a great deal of controversy between India and Pakistan. In January 2002, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan banned the group, under international pressure in the wake of the 9/11 attacks; however, up to that time, the group had been allowed to operate openly in Pakistan, raising funds, recruiting members and training soldiers.
Initially, Lashkar’s main area of operation was in the Indian state of Kashmir, where revolutionaries were fighting against Indian troops to secure their independence. However, as conflict between Islamic fundamentalists and the USA mounted, Lashkar is also thought to have become involved in generalised anti-American operations, and eventually it was accused of attacks against the Pakistani government itself. In 2002, to counter these claims, the party renamed itself Jama’at ud Dawa (Party of the Calling) and vowed to keep its focus in Kashmir. However, the group remained officially banned, although in practise, according to many sources, their activities were allowed to resume.
ARMED RAID
Following a spate of bomb attacks in India, Lashkar was again accused of terrorism, and the group actually admitted to being responsible for bombing an army barracks at the Red Fort, Delhi, which killed three people. However, it denied involvement in another Delhi bomb attack, which killed more than 50 civilians. The group again came under suspicion when, in December 2001, there was an armed raid on the Indian parliament; and again in August 2003, when a series of explosions rocked Mumbai, killing more than 50 and injuring 180 others. With the latest attack on the Mumbai railway in 2006, which appears to have been extremely well planned and cleverly co-ordinated, Lashkar was once again accused of responsibility; but as ever, the group has denied involvement.
Whether or not Lashkar is behind all these acts of terrorism, the fact remains that it has become the centre of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan. India has accused its neighbour of harbouring terrorists, and Pakistan has come under international scrutiny as a state that may have sponsored or condoned acts of terrorism. In particular, the armed raid on the Indian parliament brought relations between the two nations to a peak of tension and nearly sparked off a war between them.
SUICIDE ATTACKS
In recent years, Lashkar has become notorious for its audacious suicide attacks on army bases, and for its extreme brutality, not only of soldiers but of civilians; stories abound of massacres where defenceless babies and children, as well as adult men and women, have
been killed.
Many suspect the Pakistani government, through its Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), of supporting the terrorists, and the issue continues to be an extremely controversial one in India, and the rest of the world. Whether or not this latest act of terrorism in Mumbai will throw any further light on the situation, when the perpetrators of the crime are brought to justice, remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the people of Mumbai have been left to pick up the pieces and carry on with their lives. On July 18, they remembered the victims of the bombings with a special memorial service and a two-minute silence, gathering around the railway stations on the city’s Western line to light candles and place wreaths for the dead in the places where they fell.
Israel–Lebanon Terror
Those who call us terrorists wish to prevent world public opinion from discovering the truth about us and from seeing the justice on our faces. They seek to bide the terrorism and tyranny of their acts, and our own posture of self-defence.
Yasser Arafat’s speech to United Nations
The Israel–Lebanon conflict has been an ongoing situation since 1978, but its roots go far deeper. As far back as 1948, five Arab nations, including Lebanon, decided to invade Israel in the hope of stopping the formation of the Jewish nation on land that they believed belonged to the Arabs. The Arabs named the land they occupied as Palestine and the inhabitants Palestinians. However, due to continual outbreaks of war, thousands fled to neighbouring Arab countries. A Palestian guerilla army formed and, using terrorist tactics, it started retaliating by attacking Israel. Their attacks prompted further retaliation, this time on the Palestinian host nations, Jordan and Lebanon. It wasn’t long before the Palestinians became a force to be reckoned with in Jordan, and a civil war broke out in 1970, forcing the expulsion of the Palestinians. Not to be beaten, the Palestinian forces moved to another location on Israel’s border, Lebanon.