Egypt ‘holds’ 13 plotting attacks

CAIRO, April 17, (Agencies): The Egyptian authorities have arrested 13 suspected “terrorists” allegedly planning to attack Christians and public institutions, the interior ministry said on Sunday, a week after deadly church bombings.

The announcement came as Egypt’s Christians marked Easter under tight security a week after Palm Sunday bombings claimed by the Islamic State group killed 45 people at churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria.

The “13 terrorist elements” belonged to cells preparing attacks against “government and Christian institutions” and police in four northern provinces including Alexandria, a ministry

statement said.

It was not immediately clear when the arrests took place.

Security forces have also discovered two farms in Alexandria and the neighof

bouring province of Beheira that were used to make explosives and store weapons, the ministry added.

Egypt’s Coptic Church said on Wednesday that it would cut back on Easter celebrations to a simple mass after the bombings.

Parliament on Tuesday unanimously approved a three-month state of emergency declared by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the aftermath of the attacks.

Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt’s population of more than 92 million, have been targeted several times in recent months.

In December, an IS-claimed church bombing in Cairo killed 29 people.

The jihadist group has threatened more attacks against Egypt’s Christian minority.

Last week’s bombings came ahead of Catholic Pope Francis’s first trip to Egypt, which a Vatican official has said will go ahead as planned on April 28 and 29 despite the attacks.

Three people were injured in clashes between militants and local tribes in the Sinai peninsula in a fight that began when militants shot at a truck smuggling

cigarettes into the area, Egyptian security officials said Monday.

The officials told The Associated Press that Islamic State group militants launched RPG attacks on Sunday in their stronghold around the city of Rafah in response to the kidnapping of three IS fighters by local tribes.

The unrest started when militants shot at a truck smuggling cigarettes into the area, where they impose a strict version of Islamic law that prohibits the sale of tobacco, tribal sources said.

The government sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media. The tribal sources requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The incident marks an escalation in tension between the two sides over the imposition of Islamic Law.

Last month, female teachers commuting from North Sinai’s urban center, El-Arish, to Rafah reported being stopped by militants twice in one week and were asked not to take the road without a male relative in compliance with Islamic law. Locals said the militants had previously intercepted trucks carrying cigarettes and punished passengers with flogging.

North Sinai residents have been caught in a violent battle between militant groups who have expanded their activity in the Peninsula since the removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013 and security forces waging war against them.

Militants have beheaded locals accused of collaboration with authorities and recently stepped up their attacks against the peninsula’s Coptic Christian minority, forcing hundreds to flee following a string of killings in the city of Arish in February.