Breaking News: Gunmen Kill Coptic Christians on Bus Pilgrimage in Egypt
By Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
CAIRO, EGYPT (ANS -- May 26, 2017) -- Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others, officials say.
CAIRO, EGYPT (ANS -- May 26, 2017) -- Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others, officials say.
The
BBC reports the bus was travelling to the Monastery of St. Samuel the
Confessor, 135km (85 miles) south of Cairo, from Minya province, when it
came under fire.
No
group immediately said it was behind the attack, but Islamic State (IS)
militants have targeted Copts several times in recent months, and vowed
to do so again.
The
Copts killed on Friday had been travelling to St Samuel's monastery to
pray. Their bus was in a small convoy that was stopped on a desert road
near Adwa police station on the border between Minya and Beni Suef
provinces.
The
BBC reports officials have cited witnesses as saying between eight and
10 gunmen wearing military uniforms attacked the convoy. The gunmen then
fired at the vehicles with automatic weapons before fleeing in three
4x4 vehicles, they added.
Minya
Province Bishop Makarios said many of the victims were shot at point
blank range, the according to the New York Times. He said that children
had been on the bus and were among the dead, adding that a pick-up truck
in the convoy carrying workmen at the monastery was also targeted.
Minya
governor Essam al-Bedawi said security forces had arrived at the scene
and were fanning out along the road to the monastery and setting up
checkpoints.
Copts make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million.
www.CBNNews.com
reports that between 10 and 12 gunmen reportedly opened fire on two
buses carrying the Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital
today, killing at least 28 people, including many children, and wounding
25.
A
survivor said the attackers were masked and were wearing what appeared
to be military uniforms. "We were 40 people, including children in the
bus," said the survivor.
The
Coptic Christians were on their way to pray at the remote monastery of
Saint Samuel the Confessor, about 140 miles south of Cairo.
"They used automatic weapons," Essam el-Bedawi, the governor of Minya, told Egypt's state media.
Egyptian
television showed pictures of a bus with its windows shot out and
people injured in the attack being rushed to hospital.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but www.CBNNews.com says the terror incident has the hallmarks of the Islamic State group.
Egypt's
tiny Christian minority, which makes up about 10 percent of the
population, has repeatedly been targeted by various Islamic groups.
"The
growing number of these terror attacks is not at all reassuring,"
Father Rafic Greiche, spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic church, told a
local television station.
Egyptian
president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi called for an emergency security meeting
following today's attack which also brought swift condemnation from
around the world.
Arab
League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit condemned "in the strongest
terms" the terrorist attack, expressing the league's "full solidarity"
with Egypt against terrorism.
Iraq's
foreign ministry denounced the "heinous terrorist" attack in a
statement, adding that Baghdad "stands by the Egyptian people and
government against all extremist and terrorist groups."
Israel's
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office also released a statement
strongly condemning the attack and conveyed "condolences from the
Israeli people to the Egyptian people."
In
the United States, House Speaker Paul Ryan Tweeted: "Awful attack on
Coptic Christians driving to their place of worship in Egypt. Praying
for them. We must bring those responsible to justice."
North
Carolina's congressman Robert Pittenger released the following
statement: “The heinous attack on Coptic Christians...again reveals the
dreadful reality of the ominous threat of Islamic terrorists on all who
do not subscribe to this diabolical cult. We must be vigilant and
unified to eliminate this enemy."
Dr.
Robert Jeffress, a radio host and senior pastor of First Baptist Church
Dallas, said president Trump was right when he described in his speech
on Islam in Saudi Arabia that the war against radical Islamic terrorism
was a "battle between good and evil."
"If
the world doesn't do more in defense of persecuted Christians we are
going to see tens of thousands more die, quickly," Jeffress said in a
statement. "Let's be clear: Islamic terrorists want to do to Christians
in Egypt exactly what they did to them in Iraq and in Syria."
The Islamic State even warned Muslims to "stay away from Christian gatherings," saying more massacres were being planned.
"Hundreds
of families have already been displaced from North Sinai, and multiple
suicide bombings have killed dozens already this year," Jeffress said.
"Christians in the west must speak up more loudly for Christians in the
east, and we mustn't forget that the terrorists would kill everyone of
us if they had the chance."
Indian Bishop Joseph D’souza on Attack on Egypt Coptic Christians
From
Hyderabad, India, the Most Rev. Dr. Joseph D’souza, moderating bishop
of the Good Shepherd Church of India and president of the All India
Christian Council, released the following statement on today’s terrorist
attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt: "I'm grieved beyond words to hear
that our Coptic brothers and sisters in Egypt have yet again been the
victims of another terrorist attack. Our church in India mourns with the
church in Egypt -- we are all members of one body, and if one of us
suffers, we all suffer.
"While
we always mourn the senseless loss of innocent life -- especially of
children -- this latest attack burdens our hearts even more for a
community that already has suffered so much. Let's not fool ourselves,
Christianity in Egypt is under siege. This is the work of a barbaric and
evil crusade to exterminate the people of the cross, and unless we
intervene, countless more will continue to die.
"As
world leaders gathered in Brussels this week, I've prayed that they
would wake up to the plight of Christians -- not only in Egypt, Iraq and
Syria, but also Pakistan and Nigeria, and a dozen other places where
Christianity is facing an existential crisis. Woe be to us if we do
nothing to stop this.”
What is the Coptic Christian faith?
The
Coptic Orthodox Church is the main Christian Church in Egypt. While
most Copts live in Egypt, the Church has about a million members outside
the country.
Copts
believe that their Church dates back to about 50 AD, when the Apostle
Mark is said to have visited Egypt. The head of the Church is called the
Pope and is considered to be the successor of St Mark.
This
makes it one of the earliest Christian groups outside the Holy Land.
The Church separated from other Christian denominations at the Council
of Chalcedon (451 AD) in a dispute over the human and divine nature of
Jesus Christ.
www.CBNNews.com
said today's attack comes on the eve of Islam's holy month of Ramadan.
For the next 30 days, Muslims around the world will pray and fast as an
opportunity to cleanse their mind, body and spirit.
Christians
worldwide are also being urged to join in by praying for Muslims during
this time. An initiative called 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World
asks Christians to "make an intentional but respectful effort during
that period to learn about, pray for and reach out to Muslim neighbors."
The group publishes a booklet in multiple languages to help Christians pray more effectively for Muslims.
"The
booklet contains daily readings that focus on various topics, people
groups and geographical areas of the Islamic world," the website says.
"Each
day's subject focus is followed by prayer points. It also features
informative background articles and resources for involvement."
Photo
captions: 1)The bus that was attacked in Egypt. 2) Scene of bus attack
in Egypt (Al Arabiya TV). 3) Map of area where Egypt bus attack took
place. 4) Bishop Joseph D’souza. 5) A Coptic service. 6) Michael
Ireland.
About
the Writer: Michael Ireland is a volunteer internet journalist serving
as Chief Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, as well as an
Ordained Minister who has served with ASSIST Ministries and written for
ANS since its beginning in 1989. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica,
Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China, and Russia. Please consider
helping Michael cover his expenses in bringing news of the Persecuted
Church, by logging-on to: https://actintl.givingfuel.com/ireland-michael
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there.
CNN
has reported that investigators continue to work around the clock to
track down associates of Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton of Libyan descent,
amid fears he is part of a network plotting further mayhem.
CNN
reports the Special Deterrence Force in Tripoli, a militia nominally
under the control of Libya's interior ministry, arrested Hashim al-Abedi
a day later on suspicion of links to ISIS otherwise known as Islamic
State (IS). The militia also arrested the brothers' father, Ramadan
al-Abedi.
Britain’s Telegraph newspaper (
He
was registered as living at the Abedi family home Elsmore Road, south
Manchester as recently as last year, where plainclothes police raided a
downstairs red-bricked semi-detached property on Tuesday.
Abedi has "proven" links with Islamic State, according to France's interior minister as cited by The Telegraph.
“I think he saw children -- Muslim children -- dying everywhere, and wanted revenge," she told the Wall Street Journal. "He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge. Whether he got that is between him and God.”