News / Egypt

Gunmen attack bus carrying Coptic Christians in Egypt

Friday, 26 May 2017 10:26 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 27 May 2017 12:04 PM ]

An image grab taken from Egypt's state-run Nile News TV channel on May 26, 2017 shows the remains of a bus that was attacked while carrying Egyptian Christians in Minya province, killing dozens of people, according to state media and the health ministry.

Updated on Saturday, May 27, 2017

Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in southern Egypt, leaving dozens of causalities.

Children were among the victims of the attack, which took place in Egypt’s southern Minya Province on Friday.

The attack came after church bombings in December and April claimed by the Daesh group that killed dozens of Egypt's Coptic Christians. The Takfiri terrorists have threatened more attacks against the Arab country's Christian minority.

Minya’s provincial governor, Essam al-Bedaiwy, said the group was traveling in two buses and a truck to the St. Samuel Monastery when it came under attack.

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said in a statement that its militants "carried out an attack yesterday in Minya, targeting a bus carrying Copts and taking the lives of 32 of them."

Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said in a statement late Friday that the official death toll had risen to 29.

Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been the target of several terrorist attacks in the past months.

Two deadly church bombings in Alexandria and Tanta took more than 45 lives in April.

Nearly 30 people were killed in the Daesh-claimed attack on a church in the capital Cairo in December.

The Takfiri terrorist group has vowed that it would continue to target Christians, who make up about one tenth of Egypt's population of more than 92 million.

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