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MINYA, Egypt – Hundreds of Egyptian Coptic Christians gathered on Saturday to attend a funeral south of Cairo to bid farewell to six of the seven people killed the previous day when militants ambushed three buses carrying pilgrims on their way to Cairo. going to the desert monastery.
Service in Prince Tadros Church in Minya City was conducted in a reinforced security atmosphere and chaired by Anba Makarios, the most prominent cleric in Minya. He and the members of the congregation prayed and sang in a row of six white coffins.
The relatives of the victims cried and supported each other.
All but one of the people killed belonged to the same family, according to a church-published list of victims, according to which a boy and a girl, aged 15 and 12 respectively, were among the dead. A total of 19 were wounded in the attack, according to the Coptic Orthodox Church.
The local affiliate of the "Islamic State" group, which spearheads militants fighting the security forces in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, has claimed responsibility for the attack south of Cairo. He said the attack was a revenge for the imprisonment by the Egyptian authorities of "our chaste sisters" without giving further details.
The ISI affiliate said that 13 Christians had been killed and 18 others injured, but it was not immediately possible to independently verify the complaint and reconcile the discrepancies in the number of dead and wounded reported by the group and the church.
The attack was likely to cast a dark shadow on one of the jewels of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi – the World Youth Forum – which opens this Saturday in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, in the sea Red. The forum attracts thousands of local and international youth to discuss a wide range of topics, with the 63-year-old Egyptian leader occupying a central place.
The Islamic State has repeatedly pledged to prosecute Christians in Egypt as punishment for their support of al-Sisi. As Minister of Defense, el-Sissi led the army's overthrow of the Islamist president in 2013, whose one-year reign created divisions. The group claimed the series of deadly attacks perpetrated against Christians since December 2016.
El-Sissi, who has made security a top priority since taking office in 2014, wrote on his Twitter account that Friday's attack was designed to undermine the "solid fabric of the nation" and committed to continue the fight against terrorism. He then conveyed his condolences when he spoke by telephone with Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of the Egyptian Orthodox Christians and close ally of Sissi el-Sissi.
In a dark message, Tawadros said in a video clip published by the church that the latest attack would only strengthen Christians.
"I think it's a terrorist act that targets Egypt by playing the Coptic map," said Begemy Nassem Nasr, priest of the Holy Church. Mary of Minya. "We know that … President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is organizing the youth forum and they wanted to embarrass him."
It is shameful to note that Friday's attack is the second to target pilgrims traveling to St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery in as many years, indicating that the security measures put in place since then are either inadequate or lax. The previous attack of May 2017 had killed nearly 30 people.
It was the latest in a series of attacks by the IS against Christians. The previous ones targeted churches filled with worshipers in Cairo, the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Tanta, in the Nile Delta north of the capital, killing at least 100 people.
The attacks have increased security around Christian places of worship and church-related facilities, where metal detectors and armed police are regularly deployed. They also highlighted the vulnerability of minority Christians in a country where, since the 1970s, many Muslims have become religiously conservative and less tolerant towards non-Muslims.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said Friday's attackers had used secondary dirt roads to reach the buses carrying the pilgrims, who were near the monastery at the time of the attack. Only pilgrims have been allowed on the main road leading to the monastery since the attack last year.
Some Christians in Minya said police negligence was partly responsible for the latest attack, saying they had stopped providing armed escorts to pilgrim buses heading to the old monastery.
"They should have escorted them. They know that it is dangerous to leave them alone on this road, "said Youssef Attya, a 38-year-old health worker from Minya.
The Interior Ministry said the police were pursuing the attackers, who had fled.
Christians in Egypt, who make up about 10 percent of the country's 100 million people, complain of discrimination in the predominantly Muslim country. Christian activists said the church's alliance with el-Sisi had offered protection to the ancient community, but failed to put an end to frequent acts of discrimination that lead to violence against Christians especially in rural areas of Egypt.
In Minya, the scene of Friday's attack, Christians make up the highest percentage of the population – about 35 percent – of all Egyptian provinces. It is also in Minya where most acts of violence occur, such as attacks on churches, houses and Christian businesses.
Christians accuse the local police of showing bravery towards the Muslims who attack them and complain that they do not want the peace forces to govern peace between the two communities insisting that sectarian conflicts be resolved through meetings. tribal reconciliation rather than law enforcement.
Hendawi brought back from Cairo.
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