Qualla: Assassination of Anwar Sadat

Assassination of Anwar Sadat: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Einsamer Schütze, CC BY-SA 3.0. The parade was celebrating Egypt's crossing of the Suez Canal eight years earlier -- a military triumph that had restored Egyptian pride after the humiliation of 1967. President Anwar Sadat sat in the reviewing stand on 6 October 1981, watching trucks, artillery, and jets pass in formation along the Cairo parade route. At approximately 12:40 pm, a military truck halted in front of the stand. Lieutenant Khalid al-Islambuli leaped out, threw grenades, and opened fire. Three other gunmen followed. The attack lasted about two minutes. By the time security forces responded -- approximately 45 seconds after the first shots -- Sadat and ten others lay dead or dying. The man who had made peace with Israel was killed at a celebration of war against Israel, by soldiers in his own army.

Image: Einsamer Schütze | CC BY-SA 3.0

Assassination of Anwar Sadat: The Price of Peace

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Einsamer Schütze, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sadat's 1979 peace treaty with Israel earned him a Nobel Prize and the fury of the Arab world. Egypt's membership in the Arab League was suspended. PLO leader Yasser Arafat dismissed the agreement: "Let them sign what they like. False peace will not last." Domestically, jihadist ...

Image: Einsamer Schütze | CC BY-SA 3.0

Assassination of Anwar Sadat: A Conspiracy Hidden in Plain Sight

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Einsamer Schütze, CC BY-SA 3.0. The plot was ambitious beyond assassination. Colonel Aboud el-Zomor, the chief strategist of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, envisioned a full revolution: kill the country's leaders, seize army headquarters, capture the telephone exchange and the radio and television building, then broad...

Image: Einsamer Schütze | CC BY-SA 3.0

Assassination of Anwar Sadat: Two Minutes at the Reviewing Stand

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Einsamer Schütze, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the military truck stopped before the reviewing stand, Sadat reportedly stood -- perhaps believing the soldiers were saluting him. Al-Islambuli threw his grenades, only one of which detonated, and it fell short. Then the gunmen opened fire into the stands, emptying their mag...

Image: Einsamer Schütze | CC BY-SA 3.0

Assassination of Anwar Sadat: Reverberations Across the Region

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Einsamer Schütze, CC BY-SA 3.0. The assassination triggered an armed insurrection in Asyut, in Upper Egypt, where Islamic militants seized the security services headquarters and held off government forces for two days. Six attackers and 68 police and soldiers died before paratroopers from Cairo and Air Force je...

Image: Einsamer Schütze | CC BY-SA 3.0

Assassination of Anwar Sadat: Justice and Legacy

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Einsamer Schütze, CC BY-SA 3.0. Twenty-four people were tried for the assassination. Al-Islambuli and four others were sentenced to death and executed on 15 April 1982 -- the two military men by firing squad, the three civilians by hanging. Faraj, the plot's mastermind, was among those executed. Hosni Mubarak, ...

Image: Einsamer Schütze | CC BY-SA 3.0