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Friday afternoon on social media. Friday afternoon on social media. They were taken to a desert area, near the St. Samuel Monastery in the governorate of Minya, Upper Egypt.
At least seven Egyptian Copts have been killed in an attack against their nozzles. Over 20 people were injured, Spokesperson Coptic Orthodox Church said in a Saturday statement on Facebook.
Noontime on Friday, unidentified gunmen opened the door to the monastery, one carrying members of a family from Minya, and the other with people from the governorate of Sohag.
Gunmen opened fire on the road to six people, but the minibus was able to escape and make way for a hospital. Attackers then shot seven dead people, including two women, in the second bus, according to Bishop Makarius of Minya and Abu Korkas.
In a video circulated on social media, a man is heard crying. "What a loss," he repeatedly said. "The gunshot got you in the head, my boy."
The Islamic State Group (IS) claimed the attack, saying through its affiliated news agency 'Amaq' that the gunmen who attacked the monastery's visitors were IS fighters. Egypt's police said they were looking for the perpetrators.
The terrorist is the second to take place in the same area. On Friday, May 26, 2017, IS-affiliated gunmen killed 28 Copts in an attack against their convoys as they were on their way to the monastery.
"Another St. Samuel Monastery incident. Security and police officers do not [even] Have a try here, "a man standing next to the body in the same video said.
The violent act is the first in nearly a year after the mosque terror in North Sinai, the country's largest attack when more than 300 men and children when gunmen besieged Al-Rawda mosque during a Friday sermon.
Since he came to power, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi pledged protection to the Coptic minority in Egypt, especially after sectarian assaults and church fires reached President Mohamed Morsi's Islamist regime.
Government reaction, Pope call for resistance
Al-Sisi is in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh where he is sponsoring the World Youth Forum. The President feels his condolences to the families of the victims, and is waiting for a moment of silence.
Neither the Ministry of Interior nor the armed forces have issued official or mourning statements. The ministry referred to the official statement to the unnamed security official, calling on the press to stick to "official statements."
The statement sent to the press and media said the main road to the monastery has been closed for security reasons because of the unsafe desert area and the absence of telecommunications network. It added that the victims had sought alternative pathways to reach the monastery.
As for Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, he thanked Al-Sisi for a phone call offering condolences to the families of the victims, and a conversation during which the president stressed upon Egypt's determination to stand against terrorism.
"We are suffering from this incident in which we have become martyrs and wounded on their way to [monastery]. We have suffered so much during such incidents, "the pope said in a statement early Saturday morning.
"We know that such incidents do not affect us, but we are aware of them and we are aware that they are the most important things in our unity and cohesion," the pope added.
Shortly after the May 2017 attack, the Ministry of Interior had issued a statement announcing the initial number of victims and explaining that it was used in the attack.
In August 2017, the ministry announced the killing of three suspects involved in the bus shootings during a fire in the Qena governorate.
Terrorism targets Coptic worshipers constantly
In August, a suicide bomber failed to infiltrate the worshippers gathered at the Virgin Mary Church for a service.
Security around the church, however, and its subsequent detonation of its explosives on the other hand in the Qalyubia governorate on the outskirts of Cairo, killing itself in the process.
Police then arrested seven activists with relations to the foiled bombing.
The targeting of Coptic pilgrims and worshippers in the past.
Last December, a gunman killed at least 10 people at the Mar Mina Church in Helwan in the southern suburb of Cairo.
On Palm Sunday in April 2017, a twin suicide bombing took place at St. George's Church in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta on the Nile delta, and St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, the main church in Alexandria, seat of the Coptic papacy, where the pope was giving a sermon. The attacks killed at least 45 and injured over a hundred.
In December 2016, at least 29 people were killed and over 40 injured as a suicide bomber targeted St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, a chapel next to St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope, in Cairo's Abbasia district.
In North Sinai, where security forces have been leading an anti-terrorism war since 2013, they have been regularly targeted by extremists, shooting them dead on the streets and in their houses, or beheading them and destroying their properties. By February 2017, dozens of families had fled the peninsula.
Minya, Coptic community faces extremism in Upper Egypt
On Friday August 31, Copts of Demshaw Hashem village in Minya were subjected to sectarian violence. At least two people were injured. Assaulters stole money and golden objects from their home, destroyed household electronic equipment, and set fire to their properties, according to Bishop Makarius of Minya.
While the incident occurred in the United States of America, largely in Minya, Assiut and Sohag, Bishop Makarius implied negligence on behalf of the security apparatus.
He stated that talks about a possible attack already occurred, and security forces have been informed about the attack.
He also added that another attack had taken place at another village called Ezbet Sultan. The motives behind sectarian attacks were more or less similar throughout the years and years; extremists objecting to Copts having a place to gather, it is a church, an affiliated building or an unlicensed house.
In July, the Sultan village witnessed a protest with anti-Coptic songs, displaying power and defiance, and an official proposal to address their claims to the cost of coping with their religious rituals.
Al-Sisi vowed to protect the post-2013 Coptic community in the aftermath of violence and churches.
But in July 2016, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) is counting at least three incidents in the Minya governorate alone between June to July.
A report said that since January 2016 and 77 cases since 2011, not including civic associations, cops from August 14 to 17, following the crackdown on the sit-ins of the president Morsi and pro-Muslim Brothers sit-ins of Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Nahda Squares.
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