BLOODY SUNDAY
ISIS slaughters Christians in church attacks
At least 44 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in Palm Sunday blasts at two Coptic churches in Egypt for which ISIS claimed responsibility.
The bombings targeted worshippers celebrating the start of Holy Week, the most sacred period in the Christian calendar, and came less than three weeks before a scheduled visit to Egypt by Pope Francis.
Coptic Pope Tawadros II narrowly avoided being caught in one attack while leading Mass at St. Mark’s Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria, where a deadly explosion erupted at a security checkpoint outside.
Surveillance video broadcast on Egyptian TV showed a suspect with a blue sweater draped over his shoulders being turned away from the main gate and sent toward a metal detector outside the church, which members of the country’s beleaguered Christian minority attend.
The man then passed by a female officer chatting with another woman before they were all engulfed in a fireball that killed at least 17 people, including four cops, and wounded at least 40.
The other blast, which occurred earlier, tore through the inside of St. George’s Church in Tanta, which sits east of the Nile River between Alexandria and the country’s capital, Cairo.
Video from a local news report shows deacons chanting and ringing a bell before a test pattern fills the screen, followed by audio of explosion and screams.
In grisly images of the aftermath, victims lie amid rubble and papers while blood stains the floor, shattered pews and marble columns of the historic church.
“I just felt fire grabbing my face,” a hospitalized victim told state TV. “I pushed my brother, who was sitting next to me, and then I heard people saying, ‘Explosion!’ ”
Another survivor told Reuters she saw “body parts scattered” after the blast, which killed at least 27 people and wounded at least 78.
Susan Mikhail, who lives directly across from the Tanta church, said the explosion shook her building.
“Deacons were the first to run out of the church. Many of them had blood on their white robes,” she told The Associated Press.
Sunday’s attack followed the defusing of a bomb found outside the church on March 29.
ISIS released a statement claiming that two terrorists wearing suicide vests were responsible for the carnage.
“Crusaders and their apostate allies should know that the bill between us and them is very big and they will pay it with rivers of blood from their children, God willing,” the statement warned.
Pope Francis, who is set to visit Cairo on April 28, offered his condolences and prayers after Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
“I pray for the dead and the injured, and I am close in spirit to the family members [of the deceased and injured] and to the entire community,” he said.
“May the Lord convert the hearts of the people who are sow- ing terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who make and traffic weapons.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency in a defiant speech at the presidential palace after a meeting of his National Defense Council. He warned that the war against Islamic radicals “will be long and painful.”
Earlier Sunday, al-Sisi ordered the military to guard “vital and important infrastructure,” and state TV reported that the provincial head of security had been fired and replaced.
In two tweets, President Trump, who last week met with al-Sisi at the White House, wrote, “So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns. I have great confidence that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly.”
At Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Timothy Cardinal Dolan closed out the 10:15 a.m. Mass by saying: “Our prayers are with our Egyptian Orthodox brothers and sisters who suffered a terror attack this morning.”
Polish tourist Maciej Rakowski, 51, called the perpetrators “evil people” who “don’t know the difference [between] Muslim, Christian, man, woman or child.
“They have hate in their hearts,” he said outside St Patrick’s. “They just want to harm.”
Worshippers at St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Brooklyn bemoaned the lack of protection for Egypt’s 9 million Christians, who make up just 10 percent of the country’s population.
“There should have been more security, because this is something that is known in Egypt: that Christians are always being persecuted, especially on their holidays,” said Paul, 24, a native Brooklynite who visits relatives in Egypt every summer — and who, fearing for their safety, asked not to use his last name. “Their cops aren’t trained well or paid well, and they don’t care about Christians.”
Mina Kolta, 31, said a friend’s cousin was among the victims in Alexandria.
“I feel that my church and relatives and friends are definitely persecuted in Egypt,” he said. “Egypt is a beautiful country, but unfortunately, it is plagued by people who want to destroy it.”