Christians in Egypt bury their dead after gruesome bus attack

Al Sissi says attack designed to harm ‘nation’s solid fabric’, vows to crush terrorism

Hundreds of Egyptian Coptic Christians gathered yesterday for a funeral service south of Cairo to bid farewell to six of seven people killed the previous day when militants ambushed three buses carrying pilgrims on their way to a remote desert monastery.

The service at Prince Tadros church in the city of Minya was held amid tight security and presided over by Minya’s top cleric, Anba Makarios. He and members of the congregation prayed and chanted over a row of six white coffins.

Relatives of the victims cried and held each other for support.

All but one of those killed were members of the same family, according to a list of the victims’ names released by the church, which said a boy and a girl, ages 15 and 12 respectively, were among the dead. A total of 19 were wounded in the attack, according to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The local Daesh affiliate, which spearheads militants fighting security forces in the Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for the attack south of Cairo in a statement. It said the attack was revenge for the imprisonment by Egyptian authorities of “our chaste sisters” without elaborating.

The attack was likely to cast a dark shadow on one of President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi’s showpieces — the World Youth Forum — which opened yesterday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm Al Shaikh and hoped to draw thousands of local and foreign youth to discuss upcoming projects, with Egypt’s 63-year-old leader taking centre stage.

Al Sissi, who has made the economy and security his top priorities since taking office in 2014, wrote on his Twitter account that Friday’s attack was designed to harm the “nation’s solid fabric” and pledged to continue fighting terrorism. He later offered his condolences when he spoke by telephone with Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt’s Orthodox Christians and a close Al Sissi ally.

Tawadros said in a video clip that the latest attack would only make the Christians stronger.

AP Relatives of killed Coptic Christians grieve during the funeral service at Church of Great Martyr Prince Tadros, in Minya yesterday. Seven bus passengers were killed by gunmen on Thursday.

AP Relatives and friends carry the coffins of two of the victims after the funeral service in Minya yesterday.