Bush Apologizes To Mubarak For Suez Shooting

CAIRO — President Bush apologized to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, on Thursday for the killing of an Egyptian vendor when a cargo ship chartered by the United States opened fire on his small boat near the Suez Canal on Monday in an incident that has enraged Egyptians.

“President Bush expressed his deep regret and sympathies for the incident in the Suez Canal,” the White House spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said Thursday morning aboard Air Force One, adding that, in his telephone conversation with Mr. Mubarak, President Bush promised that the United States “would fully investigate.”

President Bush also expressed hopes that the accident would not damage friendly relations between the two countries, a press release from the Egyptian president’s office said Thursday.

The vendor, 28-year-old Muhammad Fouad Afifi, was a licensed trader selling cigarettes and antiques to ships passing through the Suez Canal. He was shot on Monday evening as he approached a cargo ship, the Global Patriot. The ship was under contract to the Navy, which has been wary of small motorboats since the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, in which terrorists drove a small vessel packed with explosives into the ship as it lay at anchor at a Yemeni port, killing 17 crew members.

An Egyptian daily newspaper, Rozalyousef, reported on the case on Wednesday under the headline “Cole Phobia Resulted in the Suez Canal Tragedy.”

Egyptians were further infuriated when the United States Embassy in Cairo and the Navy initially maintained that the security team aboard the Global Patriot said there had been no casualties in the shooting.

On Wednesday, Vice Admiral Kevin J. Cosgriff, the commander of the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, acknowledged the killing, calling it accidental. In a statement, he said a security team on board the ship had fired two sets of warning shots as three small boats approached. After the first set, two boats turned away, but the vendor’s boat did not. “This situation is tragic, and we will do our utmost to help take care of the family of the deceased,” the statement said.

Mr. Afifi left behind his 23-year-old wife, a 5-year-old daughter and a 9-month-old son. On Thursday, a relative said they had not received any form of compensation.

“There is no possible compensation for his life,” said Heba Moustafa, Mr. Afifi’s 21-year-old niece, in a telephone interview. “But we want to feel like someone is standing up for us.”

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