Mediaboss Marketing

Egypt's president says his air force struck bases in Libya where militants who waged a deadly attack against Christians have been trained, but gave no details.

Senior officials said that the bases are ineastern Libya. They said the warplanes on Friday targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the city of Darna, where local militias are known to be linked to al-Qaeda.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi says Egypt will strike at any bases that train militants who wage attacks in Egypt, wherever they may be. He also directly appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to take the lead in the fight against global terror.

In a televised address just hours after at least 28 Coptic Christians, including two children, were killed by militants south of Cairo, el-Sissi said "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

He also repeated calls that countries thatfinance, train or arm extremists be punished.

In the attack Friday south of Cairo, masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians. The gunmen also wounded22, officials said.

The attack happened while the bus was travelling to the St. Samuel Monastery in Minyaprovince, about 220 kilometressouth of the Egyptian capital, health officials told the MENAnews agency.

Health officials, citing eyewitnesses, said there were between eight and 10 attackers dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks.The victims were travelling from the nearby province of Bani Suief to visit the monastery, which isreachable only by a short, unpaved route that veers off the main highway.

Arab TV stations showed images of a damaged bus along a roadside, many of its windows shattered. Ambulances were parked around it as bodies lay on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.

Local officials said the dead included two little girls, ages twoand four.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack,which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month ofRamadan, though it had all the hallmarks of Egypt's affiliate of ISIS.

Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

Following the attack south of Cairo by masked gunmen on a bus carrying Coptic Christians, their relatives grieve at Abu Garnous Cathedral in Minya. (Amr Nabil/Associated Press)

Presidentel-Sissi called for a meeting with top aides to discuss the attack. The government is expected to tighten security around churches, monasteries, schools and annual pilgrimages to remote Christian sites across the country. Earlier this week it blocked access to nearly two dozen websites it said were sympathetic to militants or spreading their ideology.

The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilize the country.

"I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism," Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit.

Egyptian authorities have been fighting ISIS-linked militants who have waged an insurgency, mainly focused in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula, though attacks have taken place also on the mainland. Egypt's Coptic Christians have emerged as a top target of ISIS.

Coptic Christians were the target of twin bombings that tore through two Egyptian churches last month killing dozens and wounding some 100 others as worshippers were marking Palm Sunday. ISISclaimed responsibility for both attacks.

Another bombing at the country's main Coptic cathedral in Cairo left 25 people dead in December.

A nun cries as she stands at the scene inside Cairo's Coptic cathedral, following a bombing, on Dec. 11. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at hands of Egypt's majority Muslim population.

Late last month, Pope Francis visited Egypt, in part to show his support for Christians of this Muslim-majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants.

Following the Pope's visit, ISIS vowed to escalate the attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies, saying they are targets for the group's followers.

The surge in violence has added to the formidable challenges facing el-Sissi's government as it struggles to contain the insurgency while pushing ahead with an ambitious and politically sensitive reform program to revive the country's ailing economy. The program has sent the cost of food and services soaring.

"The growing number of these terror attacks is not at all reassuring," Father Rafic Greiche, spokespersonfor the Egyptian Catholic Church, told a local TV station.

Read the rest here:
gunmen kill 28 Coptic Christians in Egypt - CBC.ca