Egypt minister who oversaw Six-Day War aftermath dead

The Egyptian defense minister who oversaw the so-called War of Attrition with Israel that followed the loss of the Sinai peninsula in the Six-Day War of 1967 died yesterday at the age of 88. A staunch supporter of the pan-Arab socialism of president Gamal Abdel Nasser, Amin Huweidi fell foul of his successor Anwar Sadat and spent a decade under house arrest. But he was still given a military funeral in the Armed Forces Mosque in Cairo yesterday, the official Mena news agency reported. It gave no cause of death. Nasser appointed Huweidi to head the defense and intelligence ministries after Egypt’s humiliating Six-Day War defeat, in which Israel seized the Sinai in just three days, destroying Egypt’s air force in the first hours of the war. He oversaw the War of Attrition, in which Israel and Egypt exchanged artillery and commando attacks between 1967 and 1970.