ISIL bomber targets Coptic pope
Sisi declares state of emergency after at least 47 die and more than 100 are hurt in Palm Sunday church attacks in Egypt
CAIRO // ISIL bombers killed at least 47 people and injured more than 100 in attacks yesterday at two churches in northern Egypt, including one at which the head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church was leading a service. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt outside St Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria after being prevented from entering by police. Pope Tawadros II was leading a Palm Sunday service at the church when the blast went off, killing at least 18 people including three police officers, and injuring about 60 others. The pope was unhurt.
The bombing came hours after a blast that killed at least 29 peo- ple and injured 71 inside the Mar Girgis Church in the city of Tanta. That explosion took place in the front rows of the church near the altar, during the mass, said General Tarek Atiya, the deputy to Egypt’s interior minister.
“I heard the blast and came running. I found people torn up … some people, only half of their bodies remained,” said Nabil Nader, who lives opposite the Tanta church.
ISIL admitted carrying out both attacks. The extremist group’s Egyptian affiliate carried out a suicide bombing that killed about 30 people at a church in Cairo in December and had warned Egypt’s Christian minority of more attacks.
After yesterday’s attacks president Abdel Fattah El Sisi declared a three- month state of emergency and ordered military deployments to protect “vital and important infrastructure”.
The bombings came at the start of the Christian holy week before Easter and weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit Egypt on April 28-29.
Speaking before the second bombing, Pope Francis condemned the attack in Tanta and expressed his “deepest condolences” to all Egyptians and to Pope Tawadros.
“I pray for the dead and the victims. May the Lord convert the hearts of people who sow terror, violence and death and even the hearts of those who produce and traffic in weapons,” Pope Francis said at the end of his Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter’s Square. The UAE strongly condemned the attack and offered condolences for the victims.
Egypt’s Christians, about 10 per cent of the population, have been targeted repeatedly by militant extremists. A string of killings by ISIL in the Sinai Peninsula has forced hundreds of Christians to flee to safer areas.
Tanta, about 120 kilometres north of Cairo, was the scene of a bombing at a police training centre on April 1 that injured 16 people. The attack was claimed by Liwa Al Thawra, a militant group believed to be linked to the outlawed Muslim Brother- hood that has mainly targeted security forces and distanced itself from attacks on Christians.
Egypt has struggled to combat a wave of extremist militancy since the military removed Mohammed Morsi of the Brotherhood from the presidency in 2013.
Egypt’s Christian community has felt increasingly insecure since ISIL spread through Iraq and Syria in 2014, ruthlessly tar- geting religious minorities. In 2015, ISIL militants murdered 21 Egyptian Christians working in Libya.
Copts in poor rural areas also face regular attacks by neighbours who burn their homes and churches, usually in anger over an inter-faith romance or the construction of a church.