Cairo, May 27 (PTI): The ISIS terror group today claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians that left 29 people dead in Egypt, the second major attack on the country’s minority community in two months.
In a statement posted on its propaganda news agency, Aamaq, the terror group today said one of its unit targeted the bus the previous day and put the death toll at 32.
At least eight to 10 attacker wearing military uniforms and masks attacked the bus and other vehicles taking a group of Coptic Christians to Anba Samuel monastery in the Menya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo.
The victims had been on a pilgrimage to the St Samuel the Confessor monastery when the attack took place.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Interior, the gunmen were riding in three 4x4 vehicles when they opened fire randomly on the bus.
The ages of the victims ranged from children to over 60, the bishop of El-Minya told private-owned TV Channel DMC. Many victims were children, only three kids survived the attack.
The Egyptian army later launched intensive airstrikes, targeting terrorist hideouts in Libya.
The airstrikes came after the Army gathered information that confirms the terrorists’ participation in the attack.
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi has vowed to strike any training camp in Egypt or outside, where terrorists are trained for carrying out attacks against Egypt.
In his televised addresses, the president said that the army has already hit one of these camps following the earlier attack in Menya governorate.
