Egypt Bans Media Reports on Airstrike Killing Mexican Tourists

On Sunday at around four in the afternoon, the Egyptian security forces allegedly killed 12 tourists and guides and injured 10 others during an anti-terror operation in the Bahariya oasis in Egypt’s western desert.

A Mexican tourist who survived an airstrike by Egyptian security forces has described how her tour group was bombed for three hours.

“I am deeply troubled that some people have chosen to exploit this tragic event to allege that Egyptian law enforcement officials have no strict rules of engagement [or] act indiscriminately”, Shoukry wrote.

The problems of the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Egypt’s former field marshal, are threefold.

But in an open letter to the Mexican people, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the facts of the case remain “confusing” and promised a thorough and impartial investigation.

Ruiz Massieu will accompany the survivors and the victims’ remains home to Mexico.

After the visit at the Dar al-Fouad where the recovering Mexicans are being treated, Massieu said they are stable and “evolving favourably”.

Her husband, Luis Barajas, was found alive when rescue workers arrived, but later died. Mexican Foreign Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu said Mexicans wounded in the attack told their ambassador they were fired upon by helicopters and aircraft. Ten people were wounded, including six Mexicans.

Abdullah said that he went with Owais’ family to the morgue in Cairo to receive his friend’s dead body, noting the deceased was a professional driver who was loved and respected by everyone in the neighborhood.

At the press conference, when asked whether an error had led to the killings, Shoukry said “it is the objective of the Egyptian government to scrutinize all the potential circumstances related to this incident”.

IS’s affiliate in the Sinai peninsula has killed hundreds of soldiers since 2013, when the army ousted the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, and launched a bloody crackdown on his supporters.

Last month, Egypt’s branch of the Islamic State group (IS) beheaded a Croatian oil worker, who was abducted near Cairo, at the edge of the Western Desert.

The editorial acknowledges that there are similarities between the two countries, with Mexico also having to face the dilemma of collateral victims in their war against organised crime.

In recent years, however, it has been the subject of security concerns because of the long, porous border with Libya.

Egyptian officials initially claimed the convoy of SUVs had wandered into an off-limits area of Egypt’s western desert.