khazen.org offers its prayers to the victims family –
by Ashraf Sweilam and Brian Rohan, Associated Press – EL-ARISH, Egypt — Militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, settling off explosives, spraying worshippers with gunfire, and killing at least 200 people in the deadliest ever attack on Egyptian civilians by Islamic extremists. The attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of Islam’s mystical movement, in the north Sinai town of Bir al-Abd. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith. The affiliate has been waging a stepped-up campaign of violence in northern Sinai for years and has claimed deadly bombings on churches in the capital, Cairo, and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. It also is believed to have been behind the 2016 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226. But this was the first major militant attack on a Muslim mosque, and the startling bloodshed eclipsed any past attacks of its kind, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency in the 1990s. The militants opened fire from four off-road vehicles on worshippers inside the mosque during the sermon, blocking off escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks blocking the roads, three police officers on the scene said. Victims, including some 130 wounded, were rushed to local hospitals, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief reporters. No one claimed responsibility immediately after the attack, but ISIS has targeted Sufis several times in the area in the past, notably beheading a leading Sufi religious figure, the Sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, last year and posting photos of the killing online. “Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt,” President Donald Trump tweeted after the attack. “The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!”
Images circulating on social media showed dozens of bloodied bodies wrapped up in sheets laid across the mosque floor, while others showed dozens of relatives lining up outside the hospital as ambulances raced back and forth. Ashraf el-Hefny, a resident, said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt firm who had come for Friday services at the mosque, which had contained some 300 worshipers. “Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks,” he said by telephone. Citing “official sources,” Egypt’s state news agency reported the casualty toll, revising it upward several times after the officials’ initial reports. MENA reported that Egypt’s presidency declared a three-day mourning period, as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi convened a high-level meeting of security officials. Cairo’s international airport boosted security after the attack, with more troopers and forces seen patrolling passenger halls, conducting searches, and manning checkpoints at airport approaches. State condolences poured in for Egypt, including messages from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Russia, France, and Britain condemning the violence. Security forces have been battling militants in northern Sinai for years, but attacks have focused on military and police assets — though assassinations of people whom ISIS considers government spies or religious heretics are not uncommon. Hundreds of soldiers and militants have been killed in the conflict, though exact numbers are unclear, as journalists and independent investigators are barred from the area. Egypt is also facing an increasing number of attacks by militants in its Western Desert, including one last month that killed 16 police, according to an official tally issued by the Interior Ministry. Security officials have told journalists that dozens more, including high-ranking counterterrorism officers, perished in the October 20 attack some 135 kilometers (84 miles) southwest of Cairo. Rohan reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
