Egypt: Forces kill 19 militants after attack

CAIRO >> Egypt said Sunday that security forces killed 19 militants in a shootout, including the gunmen suspected of killing seven Christians in an attack on pilgrims traveling to a remote desert monastery.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said the militants were tracked to a hideout in the desert west of the central province of Minya, the site of Friday’s attack, which also left 19 people wounded.

It said the alleged militants opened fire when they realized they were being besieged by security forces. It did not say when the shootout took place or explain how it had determined that the perpetrators of Friday’s attack were among the 19 killed.

The ministry published photographs purporting to show the bodies of the slain militants, as well as rifles, shotguns and pistols.

Other images showed the inside of a tent with the black banner of the Islamic State group — which claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack — unfurled on the ground.

An IS affiliate centered in the Sinai Peninsula has repeatedly targeted Christians, in part over their support for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

El-Sissi led the 2013 overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president and has since waged a sweeping crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of Islamists and other activists.

Friday’s attack was the second in as many years to target pilgrims on their way to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, after a May 2017 assault left 29 dead.

Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 100 million people and have long complained of discrimination.