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Monday, September 14, 2015
Egyptian Copter Fired on Tourists During Picnic, Witnesses Say - The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/world/middleeast/egypt-mexican-tourists.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150914&nlid=8294704&tntemail0=y&_r=0
</div> <header id="story-header" class="story-header"> <div id="story-meta" class="story-meta "> <h3 class="kicker"> <span class="kicker-label"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/middleeast/index.html">Middle East</a></span> </h3> <h1 itemprop="headline" id="story-heading" class="story-heading">Egyptian Copter Fired on Tourists During Picnic, Witnesses Say</h1> <div id="story-meta-footer" class="story-meta-footer"> <p class="byline-dateline"><span class="byline" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">By <span class="byline-author" data-byline-name="JARED MALSIN" itemprop="name">JARED MALSIN</span> and </span><span class="byline" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/david_d_kirkpatrick/index.html"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/david_d_kirkpatrick/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK"><span class="byline-author" data-byline-name="DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK" itemprop="name" data-twitter-handle="kirkpatricknyt">DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK</span></a></span><time class="dateline" datetime="2015-09-14">SEPT. 14, 2015</time> </p> </div> </div> </header> <br> <p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="285" data-total-count="285" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-1">CAIRO — The <a title="Times article" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/world/middleeast/egypt-forces-accidentally-kill-mexican-tourists.html">mistaken airstrike by the Egyptian military</a> that killed a dozen people on a Mexican tourist trip in the Western Desert hit at a picnic in the middle of the day, witnesses said Monday, raising new questions about both the extent of the error and the official explanations.</p> <p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="330" data-total-count="615" itemprop="articleBody">The convoy of four sport utility vehicles was about three hours southwest of Cairo on a typical tourist trip through the unearthly chalk rocks of the White Desert at around midday on Sunday when a diabetic passenger complained that she needed to eat, according to a tour-guide official, witnesses and others briefed on the events.</p> <p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="216" data-total-count="831" itemprop="articleBody">So, with the blessing of their police escort and the added security of an Apache military helicopter buzzing on the horizon, the Egyptian guide and his four drivers pulled about a mile off the road to prepare a meal.</p> It was then that the helicopter opened fire, killing at least a dozen people — including at least two visiting Mexicans — while wounding a tourist policeman and at least 10 others. <p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="177" data-total-count="1192" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-3">Some were gunned down as they tried to flee toward the top of a nearby sand dune, said Essam Monem, a resident of the area who arrived that night and saw the bodies in the sand.</p> <p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="491" data-total-count="1683" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-4">The helicopter crew had mistaken the tourist picnic for a camp of Islamist militants operating in the area, the Interior Ministry said in a statement early Monday. But the accident has nonetheless killed more tourists than any terrorist attack in recent years. Analysts say it has threatened to do new damage to <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/egypt/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Egypt." class="meta-loc">Egypt</a>’s already crippled tourist industry by raising questions about both the competence of the security forces and the prevalence of the militants they were attempting to hunt.</p> <p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="383" data-total-count="2066" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-5">“What we saw was not just the lack of training of the military forces but also their desperation,” said Mokhtar Awad, a researcher at the Center for American Progress who tracks Egyptian militant groups, noting that Islamic State militants in the area had also released photographs on Sunday that appeared to show they had beaten back an army unit in battle earlier the same day.</p> <p data-node-uid="1" class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="183" data-total-count="2249" itemprop="articleBody">“It tells you how chaotic the situation is,” he said, “if they feel so desperate to put an end to this that they end up taking out what we gather is the first thing they see.”</p> <div class="story-meta"> <div class="story-notes"> <p>Jared Malsin reported from Cairo, and David D. Kirkpatrick from London. Merna Thomas contributed reporting from Cairo, and Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City.</p> </div> </div> <br> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05703033216616011592' itemprop='url'/> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05703033216616011592' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Glenn Meyer</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://khentiamentiu.blogspot.com/2015/09/egyptian-copter-fired-on-tourists.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='https://khentiamentiu.blogspot.com/2015/09/egyptian-copter-fired-on-tourists.html?m=1' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2015-09-14T10:08:00-07:00'>10:08 AM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <div class='mobile-link-button goog-inline-block' id='mobile-share-button'> <a href='javascript:void(0);'>Share</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class='comments' id='comments'> <a name='comments'></a> <h4>No comments:</h4> <div id='Blog1_comments-block-wrapper'> <dl class='avatar-comment-indent' id='comments-block'> </dl> </div> <p class='comment-footer'> <div class='comment-form'> <a name='comment-form'></a> <h4 id='comment-post-message'> <a href='javascript:void(0)' id='Blog1_comment-editor-toggle-link'>Post a Comment</a></h4> <p> </p> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/comment/frame/262679252203562208?po=3657446841534402672&hl=en&m=1' id='comment-editor-src'></a> <iframe allowtransparency='true' class='blogger-iframe-colorize blogger-comment-from-post' frameborder='0' height='410px' id='comment-editor' name='comment-editor' src='' style='display: none' width='100%'>
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