Egypt hits jihadists after attack on copts killed 28
MINYA, Egypt: Egypt launched six air strikes on jihadist camps in Libya Friday after masked gunmen attacked a bus of Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 people.
Assailants in three pick-up trucks attacked the bus as it was heading for the Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province, more than 200 kilometres from Cairo, before fleeing, the interior ministry said.
It was the latest attack on Copts after Islamic State (IS) group jihadists bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a televised address, said Egyptian forces had hit a jihadist training camp in retaliation.
State television reported six air strikes against ‘terror camps in Libya’, specifying that jihadist training camps were hit in the eastern Libyan city of Derna.
Witnesses there reported four strikes by a single aircraft.
“Egypt will not hesitate in striking terror camps anywhere, either inside (the country) or outside it,” Sisi said.
A spokesman for the pro-alQaeda Majlis Mujahedeen Derna, which controls the city, said the Egyptian air force carried out eight raids on the city without causing casualties.
Addressing US President Donald Trump, Sisi said: “You have said that your priority is to confront terrorism, and I trust you are capable of doing that.”
In a statement released in Washington, Trump said: “The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished.”
“Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilisation, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil.”
No group has yet claimed responsibility for attacking the bus.
Footage on state television showed the bus riddled with bullet holes, while cellphone footage and pictures on media sites showed victims lying in the desert sand.
State television quoted a health ministry official as saying a ‘large number’ of the victims were children.
“They used automatic weapons,” Minya governor Essam el-Bedawi told state television of the attackers.
State television cited the health minister as saying the attack, which prompted widespread international condemnation, killed 28 people.
It came after jihadists had threatened more strikes against the Copts, who make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s 90-million population.
The north Minya town of Maghagha saw scenes of anger and despair on Friday.
A group of around 50 men gathered near a church where the funeral of two victims was held, calling for the interior minister to quit.
In a statement on its spokesman’s Facebook page, the Coptic Church called for “measures to be taken to prevent the dangers of those incidents that tarnish Egypt’s image”. — AFP
The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished. — Donald Trump, US President