Egypt picks up pieces after mosque massacre

Egypt was reeling on Sunday from the horrific militant attack on a mosque in northern Sinai that killed 305 people two days earlier — the deadliest assault by Islamic extremists in the nation’s modern history.

Survivors and Egypt’s top prosecutor have given ac- counts of the massacre that unfolded as more than two dozen assailants, carrying a black ISIS banner, unleashed gunfire and explosions during Friday prayers at the Al-Rawdah Mosque in the village of Bir al-Abd.

The attackers arrived in five SUVs, took positions across from the mosque’s door and windows, and just as the imam was about to deliver his sermon from the pulpit, they opened fire and tossed grenades at the estimated 500 people inside.

Survivors spoke of children screaming as they saw parents and siblings slain.

When the violence finally stopped, 305 people, including 27 children, had been killed and 128 wounded.

Friday’s attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, whom Islamic militants consider heretics.

Despite the banner, ISIS still has not claimed re- sponsibility for the attack.

President Abdel-Fattah elSissi vowed that the attack “will not go unpunished” and that Egypt would persevere with its war on terrorism. On Saturday, he ordered that a mausoleum be built in memory of the victims.