CARNAGE IN MOSQUE KILLS OVER 200
100 and more injured as militants bomb and gun down worshippers in Egypt
CAIRO: Militants killed more than 230 people at a mosque in North Sinai on Friday, detonating a bomb and gunning down worshippers, state media and witnesses said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility.
The public prosecutors’ office said in a statement 235 people had been killed and 109 more wounded.
State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir Al Abed, west of El Arish, the main city in North Sinai.
Worshippers were finishing Friday prayers at the mosque when a bomb exploded, witnesses said.
Around 40 gunmen set up positions outside the mosque with jeeps and opened fire from different directions as people tried to escape.
“Four groups of armed men attacked the worshippers inside the mosque after Friday noon prayers. Two groups were firing at ambulances to deter them, said Mohamed,” a witness.
Hours after the attack, Egypt’s military launched air strikes on targets in mountainous areas around Bir Al Abed, security sources and witnesses said. Arabiya news channel and some local sources said some of the worshippers were Sufis.
“The armed forces and the police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability with the utmost force,” President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said in a televised address.
“What is happening is an attempt to stop us from our efforts in the ight against terrorism, to destroy our efforts to stop the terrible criminal plan that aims to destroy what is left of our region.”
Sisi convened an emergency meeting with his defence and interior ministers and intelligence chief soon after the attack.
The United States condemned the attack and called on the international community to strengthen its efforts to defeat terrorist groups.
“We must collectively discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said following the attack. Trump, in a tweet earlier on Friday, called the attack “horrible.”
Paris’ mayor says the Eiffel Tower will go black at midnight in homage to the victims of the deadly assault in Sinai Peninsula.
Via Twitter, Anne Hidalgo addressed her “condolences to the victims’ families” and her “support to the people wounded.”. She said that turning off the lights at the famed Paris monument would send a message of solidarity from the French capital that has itself been the site of a spate of deadly extremist attacks in recent years.
French President Emmanuel Macron also went to twitter to send his“condolences to the victims of the terrible attack.” “The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence,” Trump addded.
French Foreign Minister Jean-yves Le Drian also condemned the attack and said Paris stood with its ally.
Sisi has support from some Bedouin tribal leaders, who have helped the army locate weapon-smuggling routes used by militant groups, security oficials said.
Local militant group Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis, once allied to Al Qaeda, split from it and declared allegiance to Daesh in 2014.