Egypt declares 3-month emergency

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a threemonth state of emergency following twin church bombings by the Islamic State group that killed dozens on Palm Sunday, the deadliest attacks on the minority in recent memory.

The attacks in the Nile Delta cities of Tanta and Alexandria followed a church bombing here in December and came weeks before a planned visit by Pope Francis to show support for the Christian minority.

Sisi warned that the war against the jihadists “will be long and painful”.

The first bombing at the Mar Girgis church in Tanta city north of here killed 27 people, the Health Ministry said.

Emergency services had scrambled to the scene when another blast rocked St Mark’s church in Alexandria where Coptic Pope Tawadros II had been leading a Palm Sunday service.

Seventeen people, including at least four police officers, were killed in that attack, which the Interior Ministry said was caused by a suicide bomber who blew himself up when prevented from entering the church.

The ministry said Tawadros was unharmed, and a church official said he left before the explosion.

At least 78 people were wounded in Tanta and 40 in Alexandria, the Health Ministry said.

Egyptian officials denounced the violence as an attempt to sow divisions, and Francis sent his “deep condolences” to Tawadros.

IS claimed two Egyptian suicide bombers carried out the attacks and threatened further attacks in a statement published on social media.

After the bombings, Sisi ordered military deployments to guard “vital and important infrastructure”, his office said.

State television reported that the interior minister sacked the provincial head of security and replaced him after the attack.

“I heard the blast and came running. I found people torn up... some people, only half of their bodies remained,” Nabil Nader, who lives in front of the Tanta church, said.

At St Mark’s the bodies were taken in wooden coffins decorated with golden crosses to the church yard where hundreds of sad and angry Copts gathered and a priest said prayers.

A Muslim funeral was held in El Behira province for one of the four policemen killed in the St Mark’s attack.

Worshippers had been celebrating Palm Sunday, one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, marking Jesus’s triumphant entrance to Jerusalem.

Egypt had been ruled under emergency law, which allows police expanded powers of arrest and surveillance, for decades before 2012.

Francis, who will be here on April 28 and 29, offered prayers for the victims. “Let us pray for the victims of the attack unfortunately carried out today. May the Lord convert the hearts of those who sow terror, violence and death and also the hearts of those who make weapons and trade in them,” he said. AFP