Militants attack Egypt’s Coptic Christians, 28 dead
‘UNACCEPTABLE’ Egypt’s top religious authority AlAzhar condemns shooting
Gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians travelling to a monastery in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 28 people and wounding 25 others, health ministry officials said.
Eyewitnesses said masked men opened fire after stopping the Christians, who were travelling in a bus and other vehicles. Local television channels showed a bus apparently raked by gunfire and smeared with blood.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy month of Ramzan.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials, the state news agency said, and the cabinet said the attackers would not succeed in dividing the nation.
Muslim leaders condemned the killings. The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt’s 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country.
“I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism,” Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit. The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, condemned the perpetrators as traitors.
The Coptic Church said it had received news of the killing of its “martyrs” with pain and sorrow.
The attack took place on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority. An interior ministry spokesman said the gunmen had arrived in three four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.
Coptic Christians make up about 10%of Egypt’s population of 92 million. They are vocal supporters of Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians. Sisi had declared a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of twin suicide attacks on churches in April, which had left 45 dead and more than 120 injured.