The Egyptian Health Ministry killed 26 people and wounded 27 others in an attack by about 10 masked gunmen, some of them dressed in uniforms, targeted the Copts south of Cairo on Friday.
Egyptian television quoted local health officials as saying the attack took place on Friday while two buses and a small truck were on the road to the monastery of Anba Samuel in Minya province, some 220 km south of the Egyptian capital.
According to a church source, the attack targeted two buses, one carrying children, in addition to a small truck from Deir Al-Garnous in front of the Abu Tartour plateau in the monastery of St. Samuel.
The attack took place in the area of Jabal al-Qalamoun in the desert west of Minya, which allowed the gunmen to escape, but the police cordoned off areas leading to the monastery of Anba Samuel, and combed the road of Menia Sahrawi, to arrest the attackers.
Said Said Nafi from Minya told Sky News Arabiya that the gunmen stopped the Copts vehicles and then shot them, resulting in dozens of casualties between the dead and wounded, including children.
Anba Jeremiah, the general bishop and head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center, said on his Facebook page that the attack killed 35 people and wounded others.
Repeated attacks on the Copts
The attack comes a month and a half after two attacks against two Coptic churches that killed 45 people and were adopted by the Islamic state. In recent months, the Islamic state, which also attacked a Coptic church in Cairo, killed 29 people in December by doubling attacks on the minority Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail "the treacherous terrorist incident." A statement issued by Ismail's office said that he had "made several telephone calls to a group of ministers concerned to follow up the repercussions of the incident and to check on Availability of all "The prime minister stressed" the cowardice and the seriousness of those acts of terrorism which are aimed at undermining the security and stability of the homeland. "He stressed that" these attacks are aimed at breaking the national fabric "and" the determination of the government and people to respond with all their might to those Terrorism. "Egyptian Christians are the largest Christian sect in the Middle East and one of the oldest in a predominantly Sunni Muslim country. The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State Organization is based in North Sinai and regularly attacks the And the police in this area. The organization also carried out attacks on the Copts in northern Sinai, forcing dozens of Christian families to flee. The attack comes on Friday after a historic visit by Pope Francis to Egypt to express solidarity with Egyptian Christians. During this visit, In April, the Supreme Pontiff visited the church, which was attacked on December 11 and adjacent to the headquarters of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in the heart of Cairo.
Inflammatory speech
The Egyptian authorities said they identified the perpetrators of the attacks on the churches of Alexandria and Tanta, confirming that they belonged to a terrorist cell in southern Egypt and offered a financial reward for information leading to their arrest. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that the "terrorist" organizations are trying to "divide" During the attack on the Copts. The attacks on the Church of St. George in Tanta and the Church of Alexandria in Alexandria, which occurred during the celebration of Palm Sunday, increased the concern of Egyptian Copts who have a feeling that they are targeted. And increase the concern of Egyptian Copts continuation of the speech " The Islamic Ministry of Awqaf in Egypt on May 11 banned Sheikh Salem Abdul Jalil, who offers a religious television program on a private channel from delivering sermons in mosques. The impact of statements offensive to non-Muslims in his program. Abdul Jalil criticized Muslim sheikhs who agree that Christians and Jews are united believers, saying that "non-Muslims their faith corrupt."
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