Toll rises to 305 in Sinai mosque bombing attack
CAIRO — Egypt’s security forces were on high alert Saturday after striking back at militants whose massacre of more than 300 people at a Sinai mosque raised fears of a new and bloodier phase in the country’s struggle against Islamist insurgents.
Egypt’s state-run Information Service tried to portray Friday’s carnage — at least 305 dead, or about quarter of the male population of the village of Rawda — as a sign of “weakness, despair and collapse” among militants opting for easy civilian targets rather than hitting heavily armed security forces as in the past.
But the level of coordination and precision by the attackers gave no obvious suggestions of a struggling force in an area where Islamic State-inspired groups have gained a key foothold.
The assault on a mosque also raised concerns over increasing threats to the country’s minorities, including the Muslim Sufi community hit Friday.
Survivors and officials described five pickup trucks carrying up to 30 gunmen converging on the al-Rawda mosque as the imam began his sermon. Some worshipers died in a suicide blast; others were gunned down as they ran. The attackers would later walk among the fallen, 27 of them children, shooting those who appeared to be breathing.
Eyewitnesses said that some had carried a black flag that local residents recognized as belonging to State of Sinai, a local Islamic State affiliate that has remained largely intact even as the Islamic State’s main bases in Iraq and Syria have crumbled. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, suspicion immediately fell on Islamic State-linked militants.
President Abdel Fatah alSissi pledged to avenge the bloodshed with “brute force.” But the contours of a tougher approach remain hazy.
Egyptian security forces have been locked in battle with the country’s Islamic State affiliate for several years. The insurgency has killed hundreds in the heavily patrolled Sinai and militants have struck further afield, including Christian Coptic churches in Cairo and Alexandria.
“The Egyptian government has been describing its reaction to every attack as a harsh response since the summer of 2013, if not before. So it’s difficult to assess what is meant by a promise to do more than that,” said Zack Gold, a fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.