Egypt Executes Militant in Ongoing Bid to Crush Extremists

The execution of a Muslim militant who plotted to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the murder of a militant’s father in southern Egypt brought to a bloody end another year in which the government tried in vain to crush the armed fundamentalist movement.

Hamada Mohammed Lotfi was hanged in a Cairo prison Saturday for planting explosives at a military air base near the Libyan border in hopes of assassinating Mubarak.

The hanging brought to 43 the number of militants executed in Egypt since they launched their campaign of violence in 1992. Human rights groups have condemned the executions as summary and have denounced Egyptian courts for sentencing to death 60 militants in the past two years.

One militant is on Death Row, and 16 are on the run.

In the southern province of Minya on Saturday, three gunmen shot dead a farmer whose son they believe killed a member of their family last month.

The son is believed to be a member of Egypt’s most extreme militant group, the Gamaa al Islamiya (Islamic Group).

Forty-six people were killed in political violence in December alone, raising the death toll to 557 since 1992.

The year ended with some Western embassies upgrading security advisories to citizens who plan to visit Egypt.

Militants continued to attack tourists in 1994 as a way to embarrass the government and to scare off foreign visitors, whose money is vital to Egypt’s once-thriving tourism industry.

Five tourists were killed in militant attacks in 1994, all but one in the south.