Cathedral blast kills 25 in Cairo
Egypt’s Coptic Christians targeted
CAIRO — A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral killed 25 people and wounded another 49 during Sunday Mass, one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory and a grim reminder of Egypt’s struggle to restore security and stability after nearly six years of turmoil.
The attack came two days after a bomb elsewhere in Cairo killed six policemen, an assault claimed by a shadowy group that authorities say is linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. That group — called “Hasm,” or “Decisiveness” — distanced itself from the attack in a statement issued Sunday night, saying it does not as a principle kill women, children, the elderly or worshippers.
The statement, at least in theory, leaves the Islamic State or like-minded independent militants as the chief suspects.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack.
Egypt’s official MENA news agency said an assailant lobbed a bomb into a chapel adjacent to St. Mark’s Cathedral, seat of Egypt’s Orthodox Christian church and home to the office of its spiritual leader, Pope Tawadros II, who cut short a visit to Greece to return to Cairo after the blast.
But witnesses said the explosion may have been caused by an explosive device planted inside the chapel. A senior church cleric, Bishop Moussa, said at the cathedral that there were uncon- firmed reports that a woman posing as a worshipper left a bag in the chapel’s women’s section before slipping out. Conflicting accounts are common in the immediate aftermath of attacks.
The blast took place as a Sunday Mass in the chapel was about to end and coincided with a national holiday in Egypt marking the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. Most of the victims are thought to be women and children.
Islamic militants have targeted Christians in the past, including a 2011 New Year’s Day bombing at a church in Alexandria, on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, that killed 21 people. More recently, churches and Christian property in southern Egypt were targeted after the military’s July 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Those were blamed on Brotherhood supporters and ultraorthodox Salafi Muslims.