Anwar Sadat

Shot on 6 October 1981 at a Cairo parade by members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad led by Khaled Islambouli; the president who made peace with Israel was killed reviewing the war commemoration.

Overview

Sadat, who had launched the 1973 crossing of the canal and then traveled to Jerusalem in 1977 for the Camp David peace, faced convulsive anger from Islamists over the treaty, the bread riots, and the mass arrests of September 1981. At the parade marking the October war anniversary, a truck of uniformed conspirators broke formation; Islambouli, whose brother was among those arrested, vaulted the platform and fired into the stand with grenades and automatic fire, killing Sadat and wounding the mixed guests including many foreigners; Vice President Mubarak beside him survived. Four conspirators were executed; Islambouli name was honored by the groups that later became al-Qaeda. Hosni Mubarak ruled the next thirty years under emergency law. The murder set the pattern of Islamist assassination of rulers and froze Egypt politics into security first.