Isis attacks a bus of dead Coptic pilgrims to Egypt and seven dead

The Copts, the Christians of Egypt, have made a bloody homage to Islamic fundamentalism of Isis: during an attack against a bus of pilgrims who went to visit a monastery in the desert, the militia Islamic killed at least seven people. Twenty are injured. The attack, immediately claimed by the so-called Islamic State through its agency Amaq, was triggered by a group of shots on a secondary road leading to the monastery of San Samuel Confessor, about 150 km southwest of Cairo.

At least, when it was possible to rebuild from different sources, the terrorists arrived on board two SUV SUVs and fired on three buses: one managed to escape while two were blocked. The jihadists forced pilgrims, all Copts and Orthodox, to go down and open fire indiscriminately. The death toll of seven dead and 19 wounded, five of which were serious enough to cause a worsening of the death toll, was reported by a spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church. The pilgrims were not accompanied and ventured even though the main road leading to the monastery had been blocked, precisely because Isis had already launched a similar attack last May, causing the death of 28 Copts, of which many children. and the wounded of others 22. The Copts constitute a large ethnic-religious minority representing about 10 to 15% of the one hundred million Egyptians and the largest Christian community in the Middle East.

For years, they have been supporting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who, following the 2013 military-popular uprising, chased out the Muslim Brotherhood and saved the Copts from the risk of becoming "clbad B citizens" under the theocratic regime. of the Brotherhood. Sisi, who has been trying for years to drive the Islamic State out of hiding, particularly in northeastern Sinai but also in the western desert where the monastery is located, expressed its "deep sadness" but also its "sadness". determination "to fight against terrorism. The persecution of Daesh has been bloodily translated by several attacks, including against Coptic churches such as those of Tanta and Alexandria from April 2017 (there were 45 dead in total) and Cairo in December 2016 (with 29 victims).

The Embbady of Italy in Egypt, condemning "the vile attack of today," said that "Italy is alongside the Egyptian government and people" in the fight against terrorism and in favor of religious and cultural diversity ". He also condemned the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani who, in a tweet, called for a "fierce fight against Islamic fundamentalism".

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