Egypt, 1974 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 18 April 1974 a group of Islamist militants belonging to the organization known as the Islamic Liberation Party, or Hizb al-Tahrir offshoot led by Salih Sirriya, stormed the Technical Military Academy in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, seizing weapons in a bid to spark a coup that would overthrow President Anwar Sadat and establish an Islamic state. The plotters intended to arm themselves at the academy and then attack a nearby building where Sadat was due to give a speech to the Arab Socialist Union, assassinating him and proclaiming a revolution. But the assault on the academy was met with resistance, a fierce gun battle left many dead and wounded, and the militants were overwhelmed before they could reach Sadat.
The coup collapsed, and its leaders, including Sirriya, were captured, tried, and executed. The episode, sometimes called the Technical Military Academy incident, was an early sign of the militant Islamist current that would grow through the 1970s and culminate in Sadat's assassination by jihadists in 1981.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
65104271974
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Anwar Sadat survived the Technical Military Academy attack; the plotters were captured and executed.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →