NORTH SINAI MOSQUE ATTACK CLAIMS 305

El Sisi responds with promised brute force as survivors tell harrowing tales

Horrific accounts of Friday’s massacre at a Sinai mosque – the deadliest terrorist attack on Egyptian soil – emerged yesterday as the death toll rose to 305.

Egypt’s military replied with the brute force promised by president Abdel Fattah El Sisi, sending air strikes on places believed to be extremist hideouts.

Chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq said the 27 children were among the victims, and 128 people were injured in the attack on the Rawdah mosque in Bir Al Abd, North Sinai.

“Egypt faces terrorism on behalf of the entire world,” Mr El Sisi said after an emergency meeting with his security chiefs.

“The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period.”

Residents of the small town of Rawdah collected their dead from the mosque, 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El Arish. Friday’s massacre resulted in the death of more than a 10th of the town’s population of 2,500. The tightly knit community is comprised mostly of members of the Sawarka Bedouin tribe, many of whom follow the mystical Gaririya Sufi order.

Survivors said the attackers came in five SUVs, faced the door and windows of the mosque and opened fire just as the imam was about to deliver his Friday sermon. They also tossed grenades at the estimated 500 worshippers inside.

As the gunfire rang out and the blasts shook the mosque, worshippers screamed in fear and pain. A stampede broke out towards a door to the washrooms. Others tried desperately to force their way out of the windows.

Witnesses said children screamed as they saw parents and brothers mowed down by gunfire or shredded by the blasts. Some families lost all or most male members.

The militants checked their victims for any sign of life after the first round of gunfire.

Those still moving or breathing received a bullet to the head or chest.

When the ambulances arrived the extremists also shot at them, as they got back into their SUVs and fled.

Mr Sadeq said there were between 25 and 30 attackers. Some were masked and those who were not had heavy beards and long hair.

They wore military-style trousers and black T-shirts, with banners matching those carried by ISIL. The extremists have not claimed responsibility for the attack.

They also burnt seven cars parked outside the mosque that belonged to worshippers, Mr Sadeq said.

“We knew that the mosque was under attack by militants,” said witness Ebid Salem Mansour recalling the intense gunfire.

Mr Mansour, 38, who works in a nearby salt factory, said he had settled in Bir Al Abd three years ago to escape the bloodshed and fighting elsewhere in North Sinai. He suffered two gunshot wounds to his legs on Friday.

“Everyone lay down on the floor and kept their heads down. If you raised your head you get shot,” he said. “The shooting was random and hysterical at the beginning and then became more deliberate. Whoever they weren’t sure was dead or still breathing was shot dead.

“I knew I was injured, but I was in a situation that was much scarier than being wounded. I was only seconds away from a certain death.”

Amid the shooting many worshippers recited their final prayers.

The modest Bir Al Abd Hospital close to Rawdah quickly ran out of beds for those injured in the attack and most of the survivors were transferred to medical facilities in Ismailia, the area’s largest city.

Egyptian state television broadcast bedside interviews with survivors in an Ismailia hospital as Egypt’s Red Crescent put out a public appeal for blood donations.

“My eldest son is gone,” cried a man in his 50s named Magdy. “After the shooting stopped he tried to stand up and then just fell over and died.”

After the attack, security forces pursued them with drones and jet aircraft.

Sky News Arabia said the Egyptian forces killed 15 of the attackers.

Army spokesman Tamer El Refaie said the interior ministry was co-ordinating with the air force on Friday night to comb the area for the remaining attackers, while extra forces had been sent to the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.