Mexican tourists who suffered attack to return home by presidential plane

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Tuesday that the Mexican tourists who recently suffered an attack in Egypt will be brought back to Mexico by presidential plane.

Nieto made the announcement on Twitter, saying that the families of the victims will be on board the presidential plane. Several doctors will also be on board in order to ensure that the injured receive adequate healthcare.

The tourists were attacked by members of the Egyptian security forces after they were mistaken for militants.

The Mexican president said that two Mexicans were killed in the attack, while the Egyptian prosecution confirmed that seven of the 12 killed were Mexican nationals.

At least seven of the 10 people who were injured are Mexican, including one person with dual US nationality. They have been sent to Dar Al-Fouad Hospital in 6 October City for treatment.

Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs Claudia Massieu told reporters in Mexico that the tourist convoy had come under “an aerial attack with bombs launched from an airplane and helicopters”.

Massieu said that survivors of the attack told Mexico’s ambassador to Egypt that the airstrikes took place after the tourist group decided to stop for a meal while on their way to an oasis.

In an official statement made shortly after the attack, the Egyptian interior ministry said that a joint police and army force was chasing “terrorist elements” in the Western Desert area of Al-Wahat when it attacked the tourist convoy, which had entered a “restricted area”.

Egyptian prosecutors said on Tuesday that 24 hours before the attack, Egyptian security forces clashed with gunmen who had kidnapped a citizen.

The prosecution added that it was able to question two of the injured after they had received the necessary medical care, and that it had ordered DNA tests in order to identify some of the bodies, which had been burned.

source:Ahram online