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Six British people were among the 58 holidaymakers murdered by Moslem fanatics. Among them were a five-year-old girl, her mother and grandmother. There's still no definitive account of what happened, but from eyewitness reports it appears as many as ten gunmen arrived at the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor in taxis. After killing two security guards, one group approached the crowded temple steps and opened fire. This forced many of the tourists to flee into the temple complex, where they were trapped. A second terrorist group then turned to attack people arriving at the complex on buses.

The assault — a suicide explosion and fierce exchange of gunfire — left as many as three attackers dead and at least five other people injured, Egyptian officials and media reports said. It came a week after unidentified gunmen killed two tourist police in a drive-by shooting near the Pyramids of Giza outside Cairo. ... Three attackers armed with bombs and weapons tried to cross the security cordon at Karnak Temple, but were faced by security forces who foiled their attempt,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It also confirmed the deaths of three attackers. There was no indication...

Egypt has released 950 jailed members of the militant Islamist group Gamaa Islamiya. Some of them have been in prison since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat 25 years ago. The group's lawyer says about 950 members of Gamaa Islamiya have been released over the last 10 days. The largest group, several hundred, were freed Tuesday, in honor of a Muslim holiday marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. Those released include several senior figures, some of whom have been imprisoned for more than 20 years. Gamaa Islamiya was once Egypt's largest militant Islamist group, responsible for a string of...

Introduction The Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya organization, which perpetrated terror attacks in Egypt throughout the 1980s and '90s, has in recent years undergone an ideological reversal exceptional among Islamist organizations. The leaders of the organization have undertaken to forsake violence and have apologized for past attacks and now promote a new ideology of coexistence with the regime. In addition, they have gone to great lengths to argue against Al-Qaeda's ideology and to restrict its influence on Muslims. The Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya leadership's ideological reversal is an outstanding example of a collective shift away from violence by leaders of a prominent radical Islamist organization....

Brazilian police have arrested a man believed to be a member of the terrorist group that killed 58 foreign tourists, including six Britons, in Luxor, Egypt in 1997. Mohammed Ali al-Mahdi Ibrahim Soliman was arrested in front of his house in the city of Foz de Iguacu, 510 miles south west of Sao Paulo. The Supreme Court had ordered Soliman's arrest after receiving a request from Egypt for his extradition to face charges of terrorism. The head of the federal police office in Foz de Iguacu, Joaquim Mesquita told the Agencia Folha news agency that Soliman was a member of...

In 1997-1998, I became aware of clearly observable warnings of hostile terrorist intentions against America, by Osama bin Laden. For over eighteen months -- as part of an investigation for Reader's Digest -- I had been learning from a variety of former U.S. intelligence officers and foreign sources about a vast, world wide network of Islamist radicals, who had emerged from the U.S.-backed war to drive the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. At their head was the shadowy Saudi renegade, Osama bin Laden, whom his followers referred to as the "Prince of Jihad." What made bin Laden unusual was his background....

Did Clinton nod to Mubarak overthrow? Book suggests foreign policy goof led to Luxor terror massacre © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com A secret deal between the Clinton administration and terrorists linked with Osama bin Laden led directly to the senseless slaughter of some 70 West European tourists and the wounding of hundreds, according to a book written by a former congressional terrorism expert. According to Yossef Bodansky, author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America," a Central Intelligence Agency operative dealing with Islamic terrorists on matters of security for the U.S. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina led them to believe President Clinton ...

Security Sources: Egypt Frees 900 Muslim Militants CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt released 900 members of an Islamic militant group that killed 58 tourists in 1997 and helped plot the murder of president Anwar Sadat, security sources said on Tuesday. Analysts said that freeing so many members of the outlawed al-Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group), whose jailed leaders renounced violence six years ago, would help the movement gain a political voice and could strengthen the hand of more moderate Islamists in the Arab world's most populous country. News of the mass release came two days after Egypt announced it had freed Karam...

Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya leader Mostafa Hamza, detained for terrorist activity and attempt on Hosni Mubarak's life, released Tuesday by President Morsi's pardon Egypt's security authorities released, Tuesday, Mostafa Hamza, a prominent radical Sheikh charged with attempting to assassinate former president Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in1995. Hamza, a leading member of Islamic organisation Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, was extradited to Egypt from Iran in 2004. He was detained following terrorism-related charges that included being a member of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. SNIP(The wire services are ignoring this news. We learned about it via FrontPageMag which highlighted that Hamza was behind the Luxor massacre. FPM excerpted...

The Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has appointed a member of the hardline Islamist group Gamaa Islamiya to the governorship of Luxor – a tourist city in which militants associated with the group killed 58 tourists in 1997. The symbolism of the appointment has enraged Egypt's sidelined non-Islamist opposition, who see it as further evidence that Morsi is unconcerned about the country's increasing polarisation. Tourism is the lifeblood of Luxor, home to some of Egypt's most dramatic ancient temples and pharaonic tombs, including that of Tutankhamun. The city has been hit hard by the downtown in foreign visitors during the past...

Adel al-Khayat, a member of a radical Islamist party linked to a massacre that killed 58 tourists in Luxor in 1997, resigned as the city’s governor on Sunday, just a week after his controversial appointment to the post by President Mohammed Morsi. The new governor of Egypt’s Luxor province, controversially appointed last week despite belonging to a hardline Islamist group that killed 58 tourists there in 1997, announced his resignation on Sunday. “We will not accept that one drop of blood be spilt because of a position that I did not personally aspire to at any time,” Adel Mohamed al-Khayat...