Four suicidal killers succeed in slaying Sadat and stunning the world
The day dawned warm, dry, sunny, a typical October morning in Cairo. In the modern suburb of Nasr City, tank and truck engines were coughing to life as the troops began their final preparations for the big parade: the President, as every soldier knew, demanded nothing less than crisp precision and split-second timing. Already the six-lane parade route had been cleared of traffic, and 2,000 portable chairs were neatly arrayed in the reviewing stand across from the pyramid-shaped monument that is Egypt's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
A motley mix of military equipment—U.S.-built M60 tanks, Soviet-supplied personnel carriers, field guns made in South Korea—gleamed in the sun, ready to roll, polished to spit-shine perfection.
It was Oct. 6, a festive occasion in Egypt, the annual commemoration of the day in 1973 when Egyptian forces stormed across the Suez Canal. Although Israel ultimately recovered to turn the October War in its favor, Egypt's thrust through Israeli defenses in the Sinai purged the country of the humiliation it had suffered in three previous wars with the Jewish state. For most Egyptians, who would watch the parade on television, the occasion also signaled the start of a holiday celebrating Abraham's sacrifice.
For President Anwar Sadat, 62, hailed by his countrymen as the "Hero of the Crossing," the anniversary had special meaning. His decision to strike across the canal in 1973 had transformed his reputation at home and abroad from that of a mere transition figure to that of a leader, daring enough to go to war in order to seek peace. In that sense, Oct. 6, 1973, had been the first step on his historic journey to Jerusalem and a peace treaty with Israel.
Normally, Sadat, a man who had spent much of his early life as a soldier, relished the pomp and flourish of military power on display. On this morning he was not enthusiastic. Complaining of fatigue to his Vice President, Hosni Mubarak, he said he wished he did not have to attend the parade. Mubarak urged him to stay at home and rest. But Sadat's sense of duty won out. He would go, and afterward, in his Nile Delta home village of Mit Abu el Kom, visit the grave of his brother Atif, a pilot killed on the first day of the October War. Dressed as Egypt's Supreme Commander in a field marshal's gold-braided blue uniform festooned with a green sash, Sadat made a traditional stop on the way to the parade, paying his respects and praying at the grave of his predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser, in nearby Heliopolis. Then the President climbed into an open-roofed limousine, accompanied by eight bodyguards, to join Mubarak and Defense Minister General Abdel Halim Abu Ghazala for the short ride to Nasr City.