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Gunman launches deadly attack on Coptic church near Cairo Gunmen launch deadly attack on Coptic church near Cairo
(35 minutes later)
A gunman opened fire outside a Coptic church south of Cairo, killing at least nine people and wounding at keast five others before being shot dead by police. At least two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside a Coptic church south of Cairo on Friday, killing at least nine people in the latest attack on the country’s Christian minority.
The incident took place at the Mar Mina church in the Helwan district on the capital’s southern outskirts, according to Egypt’s health ministry. The state-run MENA news agency cited an unnamed official at the interior ministry as saying a second assailant had fled the scene. The attack happened at the Marmina church in the Helwan City district on the capital’s southern outskirts. The dead include members of the congregation and a police officer killed in a shootout at the security post guarding the building. Several others were wounded.
At least one police officer was among those killed in the attack, local media reported. One of the gunmen was killed after an exchange of fire with the security forces, while another was arrested as he tried to escape to a narrower street across the road from the church, interior ministry sources told the Guardian.
Mobile phone footage posted on social media appeared to show a man wearing a bulky ammunition vest sprawled on a street as people restrained and then handcuffed him. The source said at least four of the casualties were officers from the special forces squad guarding the church.
The Islamic State’s affiliate in Egypt has killed dozens of Christians in church bombings and shootings over the past year, and has threatened further attacks. “After the attack, explosive experts dismantled two IEDs, near the church,” he said.
Egypt’s Coptic Christians make up about 10% of the country’s 93 million people, and are the largest religious minority in the region. An eyewitness, Mostafa, a tuk tuk driver, who was near the church said he heard several gunshots an hour before the Muslim Friday prayers.
Isis claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of a Cairo church in December 2016 and attacks on two churches north of the capital in April. A month later, Isis gunmen shot dead about 30 Christians south of Cairo as they travelled to a monastery. “Dozens of people ran to the church entrance to see the source of the shooting. I saw the terrorist lying on the floor bleeding as policemen surrounded him. He had a beard and had a big [armour] belt around him.” He was handcuffed, and the police was trying to push people away from him.
He added that after the initial attack he heard other gunshots from a nearby street.
The Coptic Orthodox church released a statement confirming the attack. “A terrorist attack has targeted the Church of the Martyr Marmina as unknown assailants fired gunshots, killing a person from the security force guarding the church as well as five of the people of the church, in addition to other injured individuals,” it said.
Since the beginning of December, dozens of security forces have been deployed outside the country’s churches, in anticipation of militant attacks. Egypt’s Coptic Christians make up about 10% of the country’s 93 million people, and are the largest religious minority in the region.
Islamic State’s affiliate group in Egypt has killed dozens of Christians in church bombings and shootings over the past year, and has threatened further attacks.
It claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of a Cairo church in December 2016 and attacks on two churches north of the capital in April. A month later, Isis gunmen shot dead about 30 Christians south of Cairo as they travelled to a monastery.
The jihadis are also believed to have carried out a massacre of Muslim worshippers in Sinai last month, killing more than 300 in an attack on a mosque associated with the Sufi strand of Islam, which Isis views as heretical.The jihadis are also believed to have carried out a massacre of Muslim worshippers in Sinai last month, killing more than 300 in an attack on a mosque associated with the Sufi strand of Islam, which Isis views as heretical.
Egypt imposed a state of emergency following the church attacks and shootings, and the country’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, demanded the army use brutal force against Isis following the mosque massacre. The Coptic church statement said a Christian-owned electronics shop in Helwan was also attacked before the church shootout, killing the brothers Romani and Attia Shaker.
The group has killed hundreds of police and soldiers during its insurgency, which it is fighting from its baseon the Sinai peninsula, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip. As security forces have become more difficult to target, it has increasingly attacked civilians instead. Abanoub Ayman, an engineering student at Helwan university who lives below the shop, told the Guardian he was on his way to buy breakfast when he heard gunshots at 10am, and that the shooting lasted for five minutes.
The latest attack comes a day after six Egyptian soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in the Sinai. Isis also claimed responsibility last week for firing an anti-tank missile at a helicopter at an airport in northern Sinai as the defence and interior ministers were visiting. An aide to the defence minister and a helicopter pilot were killed in the attack. He said two gunmen on a motorcycle had stopped at the shop. “One of them stopped and entered the store and killed one of the brothers in front of the shop. The other brother ran after the two men but was also shot dead.”
“The government [police] came and took the bodies and closed the shop,” said Ayman, who prays at the Marmina church. “It has to do with what happened at the church.”
He said the gunmen had also fired at another church, Anba Antonios, in the same area, but no one was killed.
He demanded more security around the churches, but asked: “What we are going to do? Are we going to put a whole police station in front of every church?”