Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi announced a three-month state of emergency following twin church bombings by the Islamic State group that killed dozens on Sunday, the deadliest attacks on the minority in recent memory.
The attacks in the Nile Delta cities of Tanta and Alexandria followed a Cairo church bombing in December last year and came weeks before a planned visit by Catholic Pope Francis intended to show support for Egypt’s Christian minority.
Al-Sisi declared the “three-month” state of emergency, which he must present to the nation’s parliament within a week, during a defiant speech warning that the war against the extremists “will be long and painful.”
Photo: AFP
The first bombing at the Mar Girgis church in Tanta City, north of Cairo, killed 27 people, the Egyptian Ministry of Heath said.
Emergency services had scrambled to the scene when another blast rocked St Mark’s church in Alexandria where Coptic Pope Tawadros II had been leading a Palm Sunday service.
Seventeen people including at least four police officers were killed in that attack, which the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior said was caused by a suicide bomber who blew himself up when prevented from entering the church.
The ministry said Tawadros was unharmed and a church official said he left before the explosion.
The private CBC Extra channel aired footage of the Alexandria blast, with closed-circuit TV showing what appeared to be the church entrance engulfed in flame and flying concrete moments after a guard turned a man away.
Eyewitnesses said a police officer detected the bomber before the attacker blew himself up.
At least 78 people were wounded in Tanta and 40 in Alexandria, the Health Ministry said.
Egyptian officials denounced the violence as an attempt to sow divisions and Francis sent his “deep condolences” to Tawadros.
The Islamic State group claimed two Egyptian suicide bombers carried out both attacks and threatened further attacks in a statement published on social media.
After the bombings, al-Sisi ordered military deployments to guard “vital and important infrastructure,” his office said.
State TV reported that the interior minister sacked the provincial head of security and replaced him after the attack.
“I heard the blast and came running. I found people torn up... some people, only half of their bodies remained,” said Nabil Nader, who lives in front of the Tanta church.
At St Mark’s in Alexandria, at night the bodies were brought in wooden coffins decorated with golden crosses to the church yard where hundreds of sad and angry Copts gathered and a priest was saying prayers.
Pope Francis, who is due in Cairo on April 28 and April 29, offered prayers for the victims.
“Let us pray for the victims of the attack unfortunately carried out today,” he said. “May the Lord convert the heart of those who sow terror, violence and death and also the heart of those who make weapons and trade in them.”
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