At least 305 killed, 109 hurt in mosque attack in Egypt

CAIRO (AFP/AP) — Attackers killed at least 305 worshippers Friday in a bomb and gun assault on a packed mosque in Egypt’s restive North Sinai province, the country's deadliest attack in recent memory.

The fatalities included 27 children.

A bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque, roughly 40 kilometers west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, before gunmen opened fire on the Sufi worshippers gathered there for weekly Friday prayers, officials said.

Witnesses said the assailants surrounded the mosque with allterrain vehicles and then planted a bomb outside.

The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they tried to flee and used congregants' vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque.

Egyptian air force jets later destroyed vehicles used in the attack and "terrorist" locations where weapons and ammuni-

tion were stocked, an army spokesman said.

The planes "destroyed several vehicles used in the attack," Tamer el-Refai said.

The state prosecutor's office in a statement said 235 people were killed and 109 wounded in the attack, the scale of which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups. But a later report by state television said the deathtoll has risen to 305.

Between ten and 20 armed attackers "entered the mosque, killing more people than they injured," Magdy Rizk, who was wounded in the attack, told AFP.

"They were wearing masks and military uniforms," he said, adding that the area was predominantly Sufi and that locals have received threats from extremist groups.

Many dead on the floor Abdullah Abdel-Nasser, 14, who was attending prayers with his father, said the shooting began just as the cleric was about to start his sermon, sending panicked worshippers rushing to hide behind concrete columns or whatever shelter they could find. At one point, a militant shouted for children to leave, so Abdel-Nasser said he rushed out, though he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and a bullet.

"I saw many people on the floor, many dead. I don't think anyone survived," he said at a hospital in the city of Ismailia, where around 40 of the wounded were taken, including many children.

Mohammed Ali said 18 members of his extended family were killed in the attack. The mosque belonged to a local clan, the Jreer, so many of its members worshipped there.

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt mine who had come for Friday services at the mosque. "Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks," he said.

Three days of mourning US President Donald Trump condemned on Twitter the "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers".

A furious Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared three days of mourning and pledged to "respond with brutal force".

"The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period," he added in a televised speech.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condolences to Sisi, calling the attack "striking for its cruelty and cynicism," while condemnations poured in from Israel, Iran, and other countries.

UK foreign minister Boris Johnson decried the "barbaric attack", while his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian labelled it "despicable".

Pope Francis and Egypt's highest Muslim religious authority joined in the condemnation. "His Holiness joins all people of good will in imploring that hearts hardened by hatred will learn to renounce the way of violence," the Pontiff ’s office said.

The grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, condemned "in the strongest terms this barbaric terrorist attack".

Target: Sufis

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bloodshed.

The Islamic State group's Egypt branch has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, and also civilians accused of working with the authorities, in attacks in the north of the Sinai peninsula.

They have also targeted followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam as well as Christians.

The victims of Friday's attack included civilians and conscripts praying at the mosque.

A tribal leader and head of a Bedouin militia that fights IS told AFP that the mosque is known as a place where Sufis gather.

Millions of Egyptians belong to Sufi orders, which hold sessions of chanting and poetry meant to draw the faithful closer to God. Sufis also hold shrines containing the tombs of holy men in particular reverence.

Islamic hardliners view such practices as improper, even heretical, and militants across the region often destroy Sufi shrines, saying they encourage idolatry because people pray to the figures buried there for intercession.

The jihadists had previously kidnapped and beheaded an elderly Sufi leader, accusing him of practicing magic which Islam forbids, and abducted Sufi practitioners later released after "repenting."