EGYPT: SADAT ASSASSINATED AT MILITARY PARADE, WESTERN LEADERS MOURN, SOME ARAB LEADERS REJOICE.

Record ID: 1253363

  • Title: EGYPT: SADAT ASSASSINATED AT MILITARY PARADE, WESTERN LEADERS MOURN, SOME ARAB LEADERS REJOICE.
  • Date: 6th October 1981
  • Summary: 1. GV Egyptian military planes fly past President fly past President Sadat and military leaders watching (4 shots) 0.24 2. GV PAN Military vehicles parading 0.31 3. GV Aircraft flying overhead military vehicles parade (2 shots) 0.46 4. LV Aircraft fly overhead as gunfire heard 1.06 5. SV PAN INTERIOR Egyptian Cabinet meeting after attack. Newsmen present (2 shots) 1.36 6.
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  • Location: CAIRO, EGYPT, & TRIPOLI, LIBYA & WASHINGTON, USA
  • Country: Egypt
  • Reuters ID:
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text:INTRODUCTION: President Anwar Sadat of Egypt is dead. He was killed by assassins' bullets while watching a military parade in Cairo early on Tuesday (6 October, 1981). His death has been mourned by many of the Western world's leaders but his country's former Arab allies are rejoicing at the death of a man they came to call a tyrant. SYNOPSIS: President Sadat was reviewing a march-past of Egypt's military might in Cairo when the assassins struck. While these pictures show the Egyptian air force in action the threat was to come from the ground. A group of the President's own soldiers jumped from one of the troop carriers in the parade and began shooting. Within seconds the ground was a confusion of bullets, hand grenades and troops, many of them returning the fire from the small group of assassins. While they were being overcome the toll was being counted. President Sadat was rushed to hospital where he died two hours later. Six others including two of his closest aides were killed and 27 others were injured. They didn't stand a chance, being in the enclosed reviewing stand only metres from the assassins' vehicle. Responsibility for the killings has been claimed by a previously unknown group, the Independent Liberation Organisation. The Egyptian cabinet met within hours to select an interim leader to succeed the assassinated President. The politburo of the ruling National Democratic Party nominated the vice-president, Hosni Mubarak, but the final choice will be made by parliament within sixty days. Mr. Mubarak, a former air force general, went on television to break the news of Sadat's death to his people. He said Egypt would stand by its treaties and pursue its search for peace in the Middle-East. He told the nation that the tongue becomes paralysed, feelings choke as we mourn the hero of war and peace. Mr. Mubarak has been groomed by Sadat to succeed him and he has deputised for the dead President a number of times having met the leaders of Israel, and the United States during the Camp David peace negotiations. In Tripoli, the capital of Libya they literally danced in the streets at the news of the assassination. Sadat has been criticised by many Arab nations who refused to accept the Camp David agreement, the strongest criticism coming from Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. Sadat has been called a traitor and a tyrant by other Arab leaders. However, in America, he was mourned by President Reagan.
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