Local guide says tour group, which included a number of Mexicans, was in an area that is closed to all vehicles but commonly used as a shortcut

At least two Mexican tourists were among 12 people killed in Egypt when they were hit by an airstrike after straying into a restricted area where the military was conducting an operation to eliminate terrorists, it has emerged.



Survivors of the attack on Sunday said they were bombed by military helicopters and an aircraft while they stopped for a break in Egypt’s vast western desert, which borders Libya and is a haven for smugglers.

Mexico’s foreign ministry confirmed that at least two of the dead were Mexican nationals; security and judicial forces in Egypt told Reuters that eight Mexicans had been confirmed killed. Ten other people were wounded in the attack, at least six of them Mexicans. They are being treated at a hospital in suburban Cairo.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mexico’s foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, demands a full inquiry after Egyptian security forces killed 12 people and wounded 10 on Sunday.

A statement from the Egyptian interior ministry said the police and military operation was “chasing terrorist elements” in the area when it “accidentally engaged four four-wheel drives belonging to a Mexican tourist group”.

A tour guide who operates in the Bahariya area told the Guardian that the group was attacked from the air and from a distance probably because the vehicles were clearly in an area where tourists were banned. Pilots would have feared return fire if they flew close to check who was in the vehicles, the guide said.

“From where the four cars were shot, this is the beginning of the route smugglers use to smuggle and move around. It is a known area for smugglers to go in and out from,” said the guide, who had spoken to an Egyptian survivor.

The guide said the area where the attack happened, which was recently claimed by a local Islamic State affiliate, was closed to all vehicles. “But I understand why they went there as it is a common shortcut and a spot for lunch,” he said. “It is not on asphalt, it is off-road. They should not have left the asphalt, especially on the west side, this is completely banned.”

A map showing the location of the attack on Sunday, in which a number of Mexican nationals were killed A map showing the location of the attack on Sunday, in which a number of Mexican nationals were killed

The guide said the military operation targeted militants who the night before had kidnapped a local guide, named as Salah Abu El Kasm, whom they suspected of collaborating with Egyptian security services. According to locals, the militants knocked out power to Kasm’s village and murdered his son in front of him before taking him away.

“This was reported to the police and military, but it is not easy to take action at night so they waited until the second day [Sunday],” the source said. “The second day the military were moving towards the desert and they found two cars belonging to the kidnappers and they shot them, and they found a lot of storage under the ground with a lot of weapons and chemical weapons as well.

“On the way back from their mission they found these four cars, I guess they didn’t know who they were as when they shot them they shot them from far away, not close up.”

He added: “Usually when smugglers travel they put an AK47 in their cars. So this is why I think instead of the plane coming closer to check who they are, they shot them from a far distance.”

Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, posted a statement on his Twitter feed on Monday morning saying his government “condemns these acts against our citizens” and demanding a thorough investigation.

Jorge Alvarez Fuentes, Mexico’s ambassador to Egypt, and consular representatives visited the wounded at the Dar al-Fouad hospital in Cairo where they interviewed six survivors, according to Reuters.

Ibrahim Mehleb, Egypt’s acting prime minister, also visited the wounded Mexicans. He was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: “This is a painful incident and I give my deepest condolences to the Egyptian people and our guest the Mexicans, and I have spoken to the Mexican ambassador and relayed my condolences.”

At a press conference in Mexico, the foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, stuck to a Mexican death toll of “at least two”, saying the victims’ identities were yet to be confirmed.

Egypt’s western desert, which covers almost two-thirds of the country’s territory, is popular among safari enthusiasts but has previously not been known as a hotbed of militant activity. Police and military there have primarily been concerned with combatting smuggling along Egypt’s border with Libya.

Most visitors to the area are drawn to the Bahariya oasis, described by the Egyptian tourist authority as a “lush haven set in the midst of an unforgiving desert”.

Sunday’s killings have underlined the dangers of adventure tourism in a country at war with Islamist militants. Western embassies have issued travel advisories against excursions to Bahariya, especially after the Islamic State said in August that it had beheaded a young Croatian man seized not far from Cairo on the route to the western desert.