Egyptian militants killed 11 policemen yesterday in one of the worst attacks of its kind since Islamists began their campaign of violence five years ago. In two separate incidents gunmen stopped taxis on rural roads in the southern province of Minya, 270 km south of Cairo, and demanded identification from passengers. Those with police documents were forced out of the cars and had their hands tied behind their backs. They were then shot at the roadside.
Police sources said the gunmen read out a statement by the outlawed Gama'a al-Islamiya before they killed their victims. No text of the statement was available.
The killings highlight the continued ability of the Gama'a to mount violent operations, particularly in the south of the country, despite claims by the Egyptian government that it has broken the back of the organisation and flushed it out of all but a few isolated pockets in the area.
The Gama'a has been trying to overthrow the government and establish its own version of an Islamic state since 1992. But while its attacks on tourists or other high-profile targets have been reduced in the past two years by a tough government security campaign, the toll of its ongoing guerrilla-style conflict with the police has been heavy and shows no sign of ending.
Over two months last summer at least 11 policemen were killed in the Minya area in two incidents. Many more were injured. Attempts by moderate elements in the Gama'a leadership to mediate a ceasefire with the government last July were rebuffed. Soon after, the police launched a massive manhunt, killing 13 alleged militants and arresting over a hundred.
Yesterday's attack appeared designed to gain maximum attention from both the Cairo government and the world at large. Apart from serving as a bloody reminder of Islamist strength to local policemen, it struck like a hangover the morning after what has been described as the "most spectacular production ever" of Verdi's opera Aida, which was staged amid heavy security in the southern Egyptian resort town of Luxor, some 400 km to the south of Minya, on Sunday night.
The opera was held as part of an intensive effort to woo tourists to Egypt, but the lavish production was put in jeopardy last month when gunmen attacked a bus in front of the country's premier museum of Pharaonic antiquities.
Yesterday's police killings also coincided with an announcement by officials in Cairo that the two men accused of killing the nine German tourists and their Egyptian driver who died in the bus attack would be tried at a military court today.
Mindful of its lucrative tourist industry, Egyptian officials maintain that the bus attack was an isolated incident carried out by a madman and his brother, neither of whom had any links to an Islamist organisation.
Any questioning of this official version was pre-empted by a government-imposed news blackout on the affair shortly after the attack.