For the first time after the Luxor attack on November 17, 1997, Islamist militants went on the offensive again. They attacked in Beni-Mazaar, near Minia, a police car carrying four policemen, including Lt. Col. Alaa Qandil, and killed them. Two civilians, who happened to be on the spot, were wounded. The gunmen escaped and were stopped at a police checkpoint near Matay, 10 Km. south of Beni-Mazaar. In the shoot-out that followed four policemen and seven citizens suffered light injury. The police says the attacks were the militants’ response to the killing of eight of their number in the previous two weeks. On March 8 the police clashed with militants in the Hor plantation, north of Malawi, and killed four militants. These four are believed to have been involved in an attack on a church in Abu Qurqas, in March 1997, in which 12 Copts were killed, and also in the killing of 11 policemen in separate ambushes throughout the year. The second clash in which another four militants were killed took place on March 18 in the same area.