28 killed in attack on bus carrying Coptic Christians in Egypt

This image released by the Minya governorate media office shows a policeman and a priest next to a bus after stormed the bus in Minya, Egypt, Friday, May 26, 2017. Egyptian officials say dozens of people were killed and wounded in an attack by masked militants on a bus carrying Coptic Christians, including children, south of Cairo.
This image released by the Minya governorate media office shows a policeman and a priest next to a bus after stormed the bus in Minya, Egypt, Friday, May 26, 2017. Egyptian officials say dozens of people were killed and wounded in an attack by masked militants on a bus carrying Coptic Christians, including children, south of Cairo.

CAIRO - A bus carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery south of Cairo was targeted in a bloody attack by gunmen Friday, killing 28 people, officials said.

Egyptian state television reported that 25 others were wounded in the attack in Minya, a Christian enclave about 140 miles south of the capital.

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Human rights groups were reporting an even higher death toll.

"Militants attacked a bus and a car - they shot them, 28 persons were killed at least," said Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a Cairo-based think tank. He added that the victims included women and children.

"They are still counting the number of victims. The militants targeted Coptic Christians who were driving to a monastery. Some went to work, some went to visit."

The attack prompted President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to announce in a televised address that Egypt had struck training bases for militants and would continue to do so. Egyptian officials said separately that those bases were in Libya.

"We will strike against these camps inside and outside Egypt and I hope that message is clear to everyone. We will not hesitate to protect our people," said el-Sissi, who turned his attention to the international community and President Donald Trump in particular regarding the fight against terrorism.

"I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task," he said of Trump.

In Minya province, more than 5,000 Coptic Christians gathered late Friday at Virgin Mary Church to mourn those killed, sobbing and wailing in a crowd so large it spilled into the streets. Some, upset with the government, chanted, "Sissi, Sissi, go away!" Others chanted "We are willing to die for the cross."

Yusuf Debabwy came to mourn his uncle, Aid Hanin, 45, a farmer who was going to serve at the monastery farm, as he does every week.

"We have no rights. We are targeted. We feel no safety in Egypt," said Debabwy, 21, a pizza deliveryman in Cairo.

Debabwy said there's no police checkpoint on the barren stretch of desert road between his uncle's village and the monastery a dozen miles away in a rural western part of the province.

"All Egypt is under attack now and under terror, especially Copts," Debabwy said. "We blame the police."

Mina Samuel lost a cousin, Lamelanei Tawadros, 55, also a farmer who volunteered at the monastery.

"I'm very upset and angry at the government and the president because we are not protected, we feel no safety in Egypt," said Samuel, 31, who works at a medicine company in Cairo. "There is no justice."

Those outside the church said at least one child survived.

Some of the victims were taken to Nasser Institute Hospital in Cairo for treatment. A crowd of relatives and others eager to donate blood formed outside.

Wael Mahrous said he came for news of his uncle, Bushra Kamel, 62, who had been shot and was in surgery. He said the shooting happened at about 8 a.m. and injured a handful of people from their village, El Fashem.

"As soon as we found out, we went to the site and helped carry the injured and dead," said Mahrous, 36. "There were children everywhere. We brought them out to Minya hospital and then we came here to Cairo."

He said attackers robbed bus passengers of money and valuables before they opened fire, striking his uncle in the chest and leg.

"If it weren't for the fact that my uncle pretended to be dead already, they would've shot him again and killed him," Mahrous said.

Christians make up about a tenth of Egypt's population of 92 million. As Islamic State's influence has expanded in Egypt, Minya - home to the country's largest Coptic Christian community - has been a flashpoint in recent months for attacks by Muslim extremists against Coptic Christians.

After twin suicide bombings by Islamic State militants killed 47 worshippers at Coptic churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta on Palm Sunday, Minya's Coptic bishop announced that they would curtail Easter celebrations to avoid further violence.

Before Christmas, a bombing at a chapel beside St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo killed 29 churchgoers, marking the start of an Islamic State campaign against Christians in Egypt. Coptic Christians have been displaced from their homes in the Sinai's city of Ismalia and harassed in Minya, their houses burned.

El-Sissi announced a three-month state of emergency after the Palm Sunday bombings in an effort to reassure the country - and Coptic allies - that terrorists would be rooted out and quickly prosecuted. Easter passed without bloodshed. Pope Francis visited soon after, appearing with the Grand Imam at Al Azhar University, the seat of Sunni Muslim learning, to urge an end to the violence.

The leadership of the Coptic Church in Egypt has supported el-Sissi, who came to power four years ago. That has also made Copts a target for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. After security forces killed hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in Cairo in 2013, Islamists attacked hundreds of Coptic churches and homes, especially in Minya.

After Friday's attack, el-Sissi issued a statement calling for an emergency security meeting and instructed authorities to tend to the injured and arrest those responsible.

Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam, the country's Muslim religious leader, issued a statement saying he "condemned the lowly terrorist incident which has been carried out by extremists."

Grand Imam Ahmed Tayyeb, leader of Al Azhar Mosque, the Cairo-based seat of Sunni Muslim learning, was in Germany giving a speech when he learned of the attack, and asked the audience for a moment of silence for the victims. The German minister of the interior also took the stage to offer condolences.

Tayyeb, who hosted Pope Francis during his visit to Cairo this month, posted a statement on Al Azhar's Facebook page condemning the attack.

"Neither Muslim nor Christian approves of the Minya incident and the incident is targeting stability in Egypt. I ask of Egyptians to stand united in facing this brutal terrorism," he said.

But many remained skeptical that even el-Sissi, a former general, could stop Islamic State's advance from strongholds in the northern Sinai into the country's interior.

Ibrahim said no group had claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, and it was not clear whether any suspects had been detained.

"It's indicative of the situation of Coptics now, after the increase in terrorist action against them. This is just 40 days after the bombing of churches in Tanta and Alexandria," he said. "Although the government applied the emergency law, terrorists succeeded again to target Coptics and kill them," Ibrahim said.

He said el-Sissi's administration must do more to protect Coptic Christians against Muslim extremists.

"They need to impose security against terrorist action, a short-term and long-term plan to address the atmosphere and the problem that created the sectarian incidents that target Christians," Ibrahim said. "They need to take serious steps to deal with the culture and social problems, to send a message that the state protects all of the citizens and applies the law to achieve equality between all Egyptians."

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