Death toll in Egypt mosque attack climbs to 200 – state television
madaresharghi Terrorists killed at least 200 people at a mosque in Egypt’s north Sinai region on Friday, detonating a bomb and shooting at fleeing worshippers and ambulances, state media and witnesses said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the region’s insurgency. No group claimed immediate responsibility, but since 2014 Egyptian security forces have […]
Terrorists killed at least 200 people at a mosque in Egypt’s north Sinai region on Friday, detonating a bomb and shooting at fleeing worshippers and ambulances, state media and witnesses said.
It was one of the deadliest attacks in the region’s insurgency. No group claimed immediate responsibility, but since 2014 Egyptian security forces have battled a stubborn Daesh affiliate in the north of the mainly desert Sinai, where terrorists have killed hundreds of police and soldiers, Reuters reported.
State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al-Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of the city of El Arish.
Another 125 were wounded, according to state media.
“They were shooting at people as they left the mosque,” a local resident whose relatives were at the scene told Reuters. “They were shooting at the ambulances too.”
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against militants, convened an emergency meeting with his defense and interior ministers and intelligence chief soon after the attack, the presidency’s Facebook page and state television said.
The government also declared three days of mourning.
Terrorists have mostly targeted security forces in their attacks since bloodshed in the Sinai worsened after 2013 when Sisi, then an armed forces commander, led the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.