Isis f lag at Egyptian mosque attack that killed 305

TERRORISTS who slaughtered 305 people as they worshipped at a mosque in Egypt were carrying an Isis flag and wearing masks, it has emerged.

Around 30 gunmen surrounded the al-Rawdah mosque in the north of the Sinai peninsula, blocking off escape routes with burned-out cars before launching a 20minute attack of savage violence to screams of ‘Allahu Akbar’.

The public prosecutor’s office said the gunmen, wearing masks and military-style uniforms, used automatic rifles and grenades to commit the deadliest attack by Islamic extremists in the country’s modern history,

‘They numbered between 25 and 30, carrying the Daesh flag and took up positions in front of the mosque door and its 12 windows with automatic rifles,’ the statement explained, using the Arabic term for Isis.

The dead, many of whom were Sufis, a mystical Islamic sect despised by Sunni jihadists, included 27 children.

A further 128 people were wounded in Friday’s attack near the town of Bir al-Abd.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed that the killings ‘would not go unpunished’.

He added: ‘Justice will be served against all those who participated, contributed, supported, funded or instigated this cowardly attack.’

Members of the Sinai-based Isis affiliated group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis – who were believed to be responsible for the 2015 downing of a Russian passenger jet over the peninsula in 2015 that killed 224 people – last year beheaded leading Sufi preacher Suleiman Abu Heraz and posted photos of the killing online.

Egypt has been in a state of emergency since April, with thousands arrested in a crackdown on suspected Islamists as well as against other dissenters and critics.