Egyptian forces kill Mexican tourists

Egyptian security forces killed 12 people and wounded ten "by accident" when they mistook a convoy of mainly Mexican tourists for a group of militants they were hunting in the desert, the interior ministry said on Monday.

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior released a statement saying that a team had been formed to investigate the causes and circumstances of the incident near the Bahariya Oasis as well as the reasons behind the tourist convoy entering what appeared to be a restricted area in the region.

"On September 13, during a joint army and police operation tracking terrorist elements in the Wahat area of the Western Desert, forces mistakenly fired at four 4WD [4-wheel-drive] vehicles that turned out to be a Mexican tourist convoy entering a restricted zone. Twelve people were killed and 10 Mexicans and Egyptians were injured and transferred to hospital for treatment," the statement read.

Unclear death toll

Mexico's foreign ministry confirmed that at least two Mexicans were killed, though Egyptian security and judicial sources later said that eight Mexicans and four Egyptians had died in the incident, while eight Mexicans and two Egyptians were wounded.

"Mexico condemns these deeds against our citizens and has demanded an exhaustive investigation of what has occurred," President Enrique Pena Nieto said on his Twitter account. Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu told reporters that her government had sent a diplomatic note to Egypt, expressing indignation and demanding a full inquiry.

No further details were provided about the identities of the tourists, other than that they had arrived in Egypt on September 11.

Air attack

The group of 22 had parked their four 4WD vehicles off-road on Sunday for a barbecue near the Bahariya oasis, a tourist site in the western desert, when army aircraft began shelling them from above, security sources said. As members of the tourist group tried to flee, additional security forces on the ground also fired on them.

Six Mexicans who survived the incident told Mexico's ambassador to Egypt they had been bombed by helicopters and an aircraft while they stopped for a break in the desert.

A source at the tour company Windows of Egypt, which had organized the Mexicans' outing, told DW that the outing had been organized with all necessary permits. The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, added that the convoy took its usual route, sticking to the course permitted by security forces.

"The cars were marked, and the tourists' luggage was put on top, for everyone to see. We also had advertising posters covering all four cars from all sides."

Crying on the phone, the man said that he was afraid that the government might press charges against the tour company: "The government has said that we violated rules, but we didn't. We're being used as scapegoats. They know that our company has a good history, and the ministry of tourism can testify to that."

Tour guide says permits always required

A tour guide in Cairo, who also preferred to stay anonymous, told DW that the convoy could not have reached the area without an official license but added also that they would "have to be escorted by a force from the police or army."

"Out of experience, as I have been working as a tour guide since 1993, the western desert, especially the oasis area, can never be crossed by a single person except with a permit from security forces," he said.

He reckoned it was likely that if a permit was obtained, it had not successfully been "handed to the forces responsible for securing the area, (…) so the army troops did not know tourists were going to pass, and went on with their operation."

Islamist insurgency

Egypt has been battling an insurgency that gained momentum after the military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. The insurgency, supported by the Egyptian affiliate of the self-styled "Islamic State," has killed hundreds of soldiers and police to date and has started to turn on Western targets.

The interior ministry said that a joint force consisting of Egyptian police and military had been chasing Muslim Brotherhood militants in the country's vast western desert when it came across the tourist convoy, which it allegedly mistook for the insurgents it had been pursuing.

Security sources added that the vehicles used by the tourist convoy closely resembled those of the militants the joint force had been pursuing.

Vast landmass to control

Egypt's vast Western Desert covers almost two-thirds of the country's entire territory, stretching from the Nile to the Libyan border to the west and down to the border with Sudan in the south.

Western embassies have issued travel advisories against excursions to Bahariya, especially after the Islamic State group had said in August that it had beheaded a young Croat seized not far from Cairo on the route to the Western Desert.

ss/msh (Reuters, AFP)

Naomi Conrad in Cairo contributed to this report.