President Anwar Sadat had a reputation for making bold decisions in foreign affairs. This reputation was primarily based on his decision to journey to the camp of Egypt’s adversary, Israel, to make peace in 1977.
He was the first Arab leader to acknowledge the state of Israel since the form was created in 1948. He held peace negotiations with the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, in the United States in September 1978. They discussed terms for a peace accord and, in 1979, a peace treaty.
They got awarded a joint Nobel Peace Prize for their achievement. President Anwar Sadat was not very celebrated in the Arab world as it generated a lot of hate. The Arab states raged against Egypt for breaking ranks and arranging a different treaty with Israel.
A victory parade was held in Cairo to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Egypt’s crossing of the Suez Canal on October 6th, 1981. During the parade, Anwar Sadat was flanked by eight bodyguards and four layers of security.
This parade led to his death despite how safe it should have been because of the ammunition seizure rules. The Egyptian Air Force Mirage jets flew overhead to distract the crowd while Egyptian Army soldiers and troop trucks carrying artillery paraded by.
Among the troop trucks, one truck carried the assassination squad led by Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli. Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli forced the driver at gunpoint to stop when the car drove by.
The assassins then got down from the vehicle. Khalid Islambouli walked to the President with three hand grenades under his helmet. When Sadat stood to receive his salute, Khalid Islambouli threw the grenades at him, but only one exploded.
While this was happening, more assassins came out of the truck. They kept shooting wildly into the stands till their bullets were finished. Anwar Sadat was hit and fell down; people built a barrier with chairs to shield him from the shells.
This attack was brief as it lasted for barely three minutes. Anwar Sadat and ten others were killed, while others suffered deadly wounds. The security forces recovered from the shock and reacted in 45 seconds. None of the attackers escaped.
Anwar Sadat was airlifted to a military hospital. Eleven doctors operated on him, but he died about two hours after he was taken to the hospital. His death was said to be from “violent nervous shock and internal bleeding in the chest cavity, where the left lung and major blood vessels below it were torn”.
Members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad carried out the assassination. Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric, later found guilty in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, approved the fatwā for the assassination.
In April 1982, Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli and the other assassins were tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by the firing squad.
