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Mexican Tourists Killed By Egyptian Security Forces

ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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A major feck up.

Security forces in Egypt have mistakenly killed 12 people, including Mexican tourists, during an anti-terror operation, the interior ministry says.

The tourists were travelling in four vehicles that entered a restricted zone in the Wahat area of the Western Desert, a ministry statement said.

Ten Mexicans and Egyptians were also injured and are being treated in a local hospital.

The ministry said it had formed a team to investigate the incident.

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto condemned the incident and said he had "demanded an exhaustive investigation by the Egyptian government".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34241680
 
I knew that the War on Tourism would end badly...

Sorry, bad joke, but sometimes with awful stories like this, I find myself resorting to rather black humour.

Major feck up, indeed.
 
I'vd been in the Sinai peninsula, Dahab - just mentioned on another thread as it happens - and security was (I can't say 'tight' as it was hardly professional) conspicuous and heavy. This was before the latest waves of Arab uprisings, but even then our mini-bus was stopped and inspected multiple times. A few years before this, terrorists had killed a sizeable group of German tourists and the Egyptian government went mental as they know how much the country relies on its tourist industry. I'd imagine that after falling of a cliff during the 'Arab Spring', when fascists were exchanged for religious zealots, this latest screw-up will stamp its body into the dust.
 
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Tourism in the Middle East will be pretty much dead from now on, thanks to stuff like this and the actions of ISIS.
All they will have for exports will be oil and dates.
 
When we visited Luxor & the Valley of the Kings back in 2012, things were hotting up in Egypt and we spoke of it being a "last-chance-to-see" trip. Already, the tourist trade was down to a trickle so we had the full attention of every street hustler in town.

Of course tourism is the only substantial business in Luxor so there was no appetite for politics there; in a minor demonstration, someone had broken a window. All the Egyptians we spoke to were apprehensive about the future, especially the Coptic people who felt their businesses were likely to be looted first, if disorder broke out.

It was an uneasy peace. Even so, we tended to prefer to curtail our evening walks so we did not have to pass the police station, where the officers sat outside, rifles on their laps.

In June this year, a suicide bomber was detected and destroyed only himself at Karnak. This new bloodbath will do nothing to ease the pressure in the region. :(
 
Escette & Mr Escette went a couple of years ago. It was disastrous. They were begged/hawked at whenever they were outside the hotel and a trip to the Pyramids that they were told would be a couple of hours each way took NINE.

They both went down with s&d and couldn't eat anything solid all week and their insurance company wouldn't help as the rep had no record of them taking out any insurance.

They didn't get shot at or blown up though. So that was a bonus.
 
escargot1 said:
They didn't get shot at or blown up though. So that was a bonus.
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Sounds like they had a thoroughly good holiday, then. :D

Joking aside, that story would be enough to put me off going there.
 
escargot1 said:
Escette & Mr Escette went a couple of years ago. It was disastrous. They were begged/hawked at whenever they were outside the hotel and a trip to the Pyramids that they were told would be a couple of hours each way took NINE.

They both went down with s&d and couldn't eat anything solid all week and their insurance company wouldn't help as the rep had no record of them taking out any insurance.

They didn't get shot at or blown up though. So that was a bonus.
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The missus has been hinting heavily that she wants to go back to Turkey for some time now (she once went there with her ex) ... I've explained we're post 9/11 nowadays so things will be different now, I don't want to be pressured into buying her gold that will turn her skin green, I don't like uncomfortably hot enviroments, I've got blonde hair with bluey green eyes and don't really fancy artificially smiling at sexually oppressed local businessmen, I'd prefer to relax instead .. or being shot at or blown up .. or having my head sawn off while keeping a brave face .. and paying for all of the above. The opportunity to do so puts Banksy's Dismaland in the shade (I prefer the shade) in comparison ...

I think she just liked the cheap markets ...
 
Mythopoeika said:
Sounds like brass.
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... Which is the con act, not just in Turkey but also loads of Spanish Islands .. I was once circled by a few African gentleman who insisted I buy the chain they'd put around her neck. "She looks beautiful with it!" ... "She still looks beautiful without it" .. police car pulls up and they remove it from my mate's neck.
 
We went to Egypt four years ago, I've wanted to see the Pyramids and the Cairo museum since I was knee high to a grasshopper.

We stayed in Sharm El Sheikh, took a bus ride out to Mount Sinai to see where some dude called Moses picked-up his tablets, and visted St Catherine's which is a joint Christian/Muslim monastery and ironically was seen as a pillar of cooperation. There are monks from both religions living there, and it has a church bell tower right next to a minaret.

The place is full of feral cats, there's a huge ossuary, and the actual real Burning Bush is inside the site! (It looked suspiciously unburnt.) There's also the simulacrum of a calf in the rocks - my photo of it was printed in FT's Simulacra Corner a while back.

We dropped in to Dahab on the way back, but didn't see any strange folk.

Also took a flight to Cairo, saw the Suez Canal from above, got within six inches of King Tut's mask and sarcophagus in the Antiquities Museum, and went right into the bowels of the Great Pyramid (terrifying but awe-inspiring).

An absolutely fantastic holiday, saw things I never thought I would. In fact, holiday of a lifetime for me.

Such an absolute crying shame that so many people won't get to experience it in the way we did - and I shudder to think what might have gone on at St Catherine's since then.
 
Quite.

Depressing that the world is steadily becoming less accessible. More places are going off-limits than are opening up.
 
My parents went on holiday to Turkey recently - they were there when the Tunisia attack happened.

Before they went, I sort-of-jokingly asked how close their hotel was to the Syrian border...

"Oh don't worry, we've checked, it's fine - it's about 100 miles away!"

:eek:

Yeah, that eased my concerns Mum.
 
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I must admit I thought things in Egypt would have gotten worse. I was worried the Muslim Brotherhood might start dynamiting the old monuments. My impression is that the egyptians never cared much about their ancient past untill they realized there was money in it. I hope I'm wrong.
 
Xanatic* said:
I must admit I thought things in Egypt would have gotten worse. I was worried the Muslim Brotherhood might start dynamiting the old monuments. My impression is that the egyptians never cared much about their ancient past untill they realized there was money in it. I hope I'm wrong.
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There is a war going on with the Egyptian police and military suffering significant casualties. Especially in the Sinai and western desert.
 
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