Mexico FM heads to Egypt after tourists killed by mistake

CAIRO // Mexico’s foreign minister was to fly to Egypt on Tuesday with relatives of the tourists mistakenly killed by Egyptian security forces as her government called for an urgent investigation of the “deplorable event”.

At least two Mexicans were killed and six missing after their convoy came under attack during an operation Sunday against jihadists in Egypt’s vast Western Desert.

Egypt’s interior ministry said forces “chasing terrorist elements” had “mistakenly” targeted four pick-up trucks carrying the tourists.

It did not give a breakdown of the casualties but said “the incident led to the death of 12 Mexicans and Egyptians and the wounding of 10 others”.

Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu said late Monday she was heading to Cairo to seek answers from Egyptian authorities, accompanied by relatives of some of the victims and doctors to care for the wounded.

“We face a terrible loss of human lives and an unjustified attack that obligates us to make the protection of our citizens the priority,” she told reporters at Mexico City’s international airport.

At least two Mexicans were confirmed dead, while another six were wounded and six more unaccounted for, she said.

Ruiz Massieu said she would hold talks with top Egyptian officials in order to “obtain first-hand information that can clear up the circumstances of this deplorable event, which has cost the lives of innocent Mexican tourists”.

The minister earlier said the tour group had arrived in Cairo on September 11 and left two days later for the Bahariya oasis.

She said the six Mexican survivors told the Mexican ambassador they had stopped for a meal when they “suffered an aerial attack with bombs launched by a plane and helicopters”.

Egypt had pledged to create an investigative committee headed by the prime minister, she said.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby said American embassy staff were checking “reports of a potential US citizen involved”.

He refused to be drawn on reports that Apache attack helicopters built and supplied by the United States were used in the raid.

* Agence France-Presse