Hundreds killed in attack on Egyptian mosque

Militants attacked a crowded mosque with explosives and gunfire during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, killing more than 230 people in the deadliest attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt.

The attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of Islam’s mystical movement, in the north Sinai town of Bir al-abd. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith.

The startling bloodshed, which also saw at least 109 wounded, was the latest sign of how more than three years of fighting in Sinai has been unable to crush an insurgency waged by the IS affiliate.

Seeking to spread the violence, the militants over the past year have carried out deadly bombings on churches in the capital, Cairo, and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. The affiliate is also believed to have been behind the 2016 downing of a Russian passenger jet which killed 226 people.

But this was the first major militant attack on a Muslim mosque, pictured, and it eclipsed any past attacks of its kind, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency in the 1990s.

The militants opened fire from four off-road vehicles on the hundreds of worshippers attending the mosque.

Picture: Getty Images.