IS claims Cairo church bombing

Military court jails Brotherhood supporters

CAIRO, Dec 14, (Agencies): The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a bomb attack on a Cairo church that killed 25 people, the first claim for one of the worst attacks on the Coptic Christian community in recent memory.

IS identified the suicide bomber who carried out Sunday’s attack by the pseudonym Abu Abdallah al-Masri in a statement circulated on social media on Tuesday.

The bomber “got in between the crowd” and detonated his explosive belt, the jihadist group said in the statement.

The group said it would continue attacks against “every infidel and apostate in Egypt, and everywhere”.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi named the suicide bomber as Mahmoud Shafik Mohamed Mostafa, 22, during a funeral for the victims on Monday.

Egyptian authorities are battling an Islamist insurgency led by an Egyptian affiliate of IS.

Targeted

While most of the insurgents’ attacks have mainly targeted police and military in northern Sinai province, the jihadists have also targeted security forces and government officials in Cairo.

The attacks have worsened since the July 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The ouster was led by Sisi, who was defence minister at the time.

Following the deadly dispersal by security forces of two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo in August 2013, mobs attacked more than 40 churches nationwide, as well as dozens of schools, houses and businesses belonging to Copts.

They pointed to the appearance of Coptic Pope Tawadros II next to Sisi

the chairmanship of Diyanet is problematic.”

As recently as Friday, the Dutch Diyanet had issued a press statement denying any involvement with “collecting information on Gulenist sympathizers”. (RTRS)

Kurds see hope of Trump vows:

The newest enterprise bearing Donald Trump’s name is not a five-star hotel or an exclusive in July 2013, when the then army chief — also surrounded by Muslim and opposition figures — announced Morsi’s removal on television.

Sisi said Mostafa, the suspected suicide bomber, had detonated his explosive belt at the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, which is adjacent to Saint Mark’s Cathedral, the seat of the Coptic pope.

The interior ministry said late on Monday that Mostafa had been identified by DNA tests from body parts which matched that of his family.

It also said Mostafa was working with a group that received logistical and financial support from Muslim Brotherhood members residing in Qatar.

The Muslim Brotherhood has denied any involvement with the incident.

The authorities have arrested four alleged members of this group, the interior ministry said.

The attacks were “aiming to foment a large-scale sectarian crisis” without linking the group with these attacks, the interior ministry said.

The ministry statement claims a group named The Egyptian Revolutionary Council, an alleged arm of the Brotherhood, has issued a statement on Dec 5 “vowing to target the heads of the Orthodox Church because of its support for the state.”

Some analysts had warned that Islamists affiliated with the Brotherhood, though not necessarily under their control, could turn to serious violence after the 2013 post-coup crackdown.

Accused

Meanwhile, Qatar has denied any link with a Cairo church bombing that killed 25 people and accused critics of trying to sully the country’s name.

Doha’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

golf club. It is a restaurant in northern Iraq serving fire-roasted carp for $10 a kilo which the US president-elect probably doesn’t even know exists.

Trump Fish, whose logo features the businessman-turned-politician’s distinctive yellow mane, opened about 10 days ago in the Kurdish city of Duhok, an hour’s drive from the latest battle against Islamic State militants in Mosul.

Owner Nedyar Zawity says he registered added that it condemned all “terrorism acts”, in a statement released through the Qatar News Agency on Tuesday night.

On Monday, Egypt accused fugitive Muslim Brotherhood leaders who fled to Qatar of training and financing those responsible for the deadly bomb attack on the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church a day earlier.

Cairo’s interior ministry pointed a finger at suspect Mohab Mostafa el-Sayed Qassem, also known as “The Doctor”, who travelled to Qatar in 2015.

It said Qassem was offered financial and logistical support to carry out attacks in Egypt. But Qatar said such claims were baseless.

CAIRO:

Also:

A military court sentenced 141 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to up to 15 years in prison on Tuesday for ransacking public facilities and rioting, the defendants’ lawyers told Reuters.

The Assiut military court sentenced 96 of them to 15 years in absentia. Forty-two of those in detention were sentenced to seven years in prison and three of those detained to five years. The 45 detained were each also fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,100), said lawyers Khaled al-Koumy and Mohamed Samir.

The case dealt with events in August 2013 in the city of Malawi in the Province of Minya which were among a wave of unrest after the army removed elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from power, following mass protests against his rule.

Suspects in security and terrorismrelated cases are often sent to the military courts in Egypt. The general prosecution referred the defendants to a military tribunal in March last year.

the Trump name months ago with Kurdish authorities. The 31-year-old entrepreneur insists the branding is more about turning a profit than endorsing politics, but he likes Trump’s strong personality and reputation as a successful businessman.

Above all, he appreciates the presidentelect’s promise to ramp up support to the Kurds and their peshmerga fighters, a sensitive proposition in a country where competing pro-government forces vie for Western backing.

“I personally love Trump for this,” Zawity told Reuters. “The name Trump is beloved in Kurdistan.”

The Kurds, oppressed under successive Arab governments in Iraq, are perhaps the biggest victors of the new order born out of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

While Iraqi Arabs further south have been gripped by sectarian conflict for more than a decade, Kurdistan remained relatively safe, enjoyed an economic boom and steadily developed its autonomy.

More recently, Kurdish peshmerga fighters – whose name literally means “those who face death” – have proven vital US allies in the war against Islamic State, which seized a third of the country in 2014 when Iraqi forces collapsed.

The Kurds have pushed for years to receive direct support instead of aid funnelled through Baghdad – something Washington has resisted in pursuit of a strategy to prevent Iraq fragmenting. (RTRS)