ASSIUT, Egypt, 29 February 2004 — Egyptian security forces yesterday attacked a town where members of a family convicted of criminal activity had taken up to 250 people hostage, and one member of the clan said 20 people were killed in the assault.
Officials were unable to confirm report of deaths in the attack, in which security forces used rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns against buildings where members of the Awlad Al-Hanafi family were holed up.
Security sources said the attack, which lasted for about six hours, destroyed five houses in the small southern Egyptian town of Nakhila, where 37 members of the Hanafi family had been under siege for nearly a week.
The wanted men had been sentenced in absentia to jail terms of up to life for crimes including drugs and weapons’ dealing. Police have yet to detain any of the wanted people, security sources said.
Yasser Kassem Al-Hanafi told Reuters by telephone from the town on the Nile, about 350 km (220 miles) south of Cairo, that 20 people had been killed during the assault and that 30 others were wounded.
The security sources said troops also fired from boats on the Nile on the part of the town where the wanted were besieged.
Senior Hanafi family member Izzat Mohamed Hanafi, sentenced to about 150 years in jail, earlier told Reuters by telephone the family would kill some of the hostages and respond with heavy weapons if the security forces did not halt the attack.
The wanted men had strapped gas bottles to palm trees at the edge of Nakhila, ready to detonate them with gunfire if the security forces tried to enter the town, surrounded by about 6,000 members of the security forces and 150 armored trucks.
Four policemen were injured in a gun battle between the wanted and the security forces on Friday, security sources said.
