Attacks on religious minority continue: Terrorists kill 26 Coptic Christians and injure another 25 in Cairo
Gunmen kill 26 in latest attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt – By Ruth Michaelson / May 26 2017
Twenty-six people have been killed and 25 wounded in a gun attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians south of Cairo, the latest in a series of terrorist incidents targeting the religious minority in Egypt.
Local media reported witnesses saying that between eight and 10 gunmen, dressed in military uniform, carried out the attack. Egypt’s interior ministry said the attackers, travelling in four-wheel-drives, “fired indiscriminately” at a car, bus and a truck in the al-Idwah district outside Minya, roughly 135 miles (220km) south of Cairo.
Activists monitoring the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt said the convoy was attacked as the group drove along an unpaved desert road en route to the monastery of Saint Samuel, located close to Maghagha. The convoy was carrying worshippers and workers to the holy site.
“The terrorists got in the bus and began shooting,” said Bishop Makarios, the the highest Coptic church official in Minya. “The injuries are straight shots in the head, body and the neck.”
A search by Egyptian security forces was under way to try to catch those responsible.
“What we now know for sure is that three cars executed the attack, with up to 10 men inside,” said Gen Essam al-Din Bedewi, the Minya governor. “Security forces have now closed the road leading to the monastery. We are now intensifying security, as this road is close to the western desert, and we fear that the perpetrators may attempt to escape through the mountainous area close to the monastery.”
Continue to theguardian.com article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/several-killed-in-attack-on-bus-carrying-coptic-christians-in-egypt
