Egyptian forces on Friday launched air strikes on six jihadist training camps in Libya in retaliation for an attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt in which at least 29 people were killed, many of them children.
Egypt raids IS group camp in Libya after attack on Coptic Christians
http://www.france24.com/en/20170526-egypt-libya-launches-air-strikes-libya-response-attack-coptic-christians-children-islamists
It was the latest attack on Copts after Islamic State (IS) group jihadists bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a televised address, said Egyptian forces had hit a jihadist training camp in retaliation.
State television reported six air strikes against "terror camps in Libya", specifying that jihadist training camps were hit in the eastern Libyan city of Derna. Witnesses there reported four strikes by a single aircraft.
"Egypt will not hesitate in striking terror camps anywhere, either inside (the country) or outside it," Sisi said.
A spokesman for the pro-Al-Qaeda Majlis Mujahedeen Derna, which controls the city, said the Egyptian air force carried out eight raids on the city without causing casualties.
Addressing US President Donald Trump, Sisi said: "You have said that your priority is to confront terrorism, and I trust you are capable of doing that."
In a statement released in Washington, Trump said: "The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished."
"Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilisation, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil."
No group has yet claimed responsibility for attacking the bus.
Footage on state television showed the bus riddled with bullet holes, while cellphone footage and pictures on media sites showed victims lying in the desert sand.
International condemnation State television quoted a health ministry official as saying a "large number" of the victims were children. "They used automatic weapons," Minya governor Essam el-Bedawi told state television of the attackers.
Official sources said that the attack, which prompted widespread international condemnation, killed 29 people. It came after jihadists had threatened more strikes against the Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90-million population. The north Minya town of Maghagha saw scenes of anger and despair on Friday.
A group of around 50 men gathered near a church where the funeral of two victims was held, calling for the interior minister to quit. Nearby, a dozen women in dusty black robes cried and moaned.
In a statement on its spokesman's Facebook page, the Coptic Church called for "measures to be taken to prevent the dangers of those incidents that tarnish Egypt's image".
IS group suicide bombers struck a Cairo church on December 11, killing 29 people.
On April 11, bombers attacked two churches north of Cairo on Palm Sunday, killing 45 in the deadliest strike in living memory against the Copts. The bombings prompted Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency.
The Egyptian affiliate of the IS group has also killed several Copts in North Sinai, forcing dozens of families to flee in January. Friday's shooting came after a historic visit to Egypt by Roman Catholic Pope Francis to show solidarity.
'Senseless act of hatred' - In late April, Francis visited one of the bombed Coptic churches and condemned violence carried out in the name of God.
After Friday's attack, he sent a message to Sisi saying he was "deeply saddened to learn of the barbaric attack, calling it a "senseless act of hatred".
Al-Azhar, Egypt's top religious authority, condemned the shooting on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "The Minya incident is unacceptable to Muslims and Christians and it targets Egypt's stability," Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb said in a statement.
Egyptian fighter jets carried out strikes on Friday directed at camps in Libya which Cairo says have been training militants who killed dozens of Christians earlier in the day.
Egypt launches air raids in Libya after Christians killed
http://news.trust.org/item/20170526103739-os8o8/
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he had ordered strikes against what he called terrorist camps, declaring in a televised address that states that sponsored terrorism would be punished.
Egyptian military sources said six strikes took place near Derna in eastern Libya at around sundown, hours after masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians travelling to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing 29 and wounding 24.
The Egyptian military said the operation was ongoing and had been undertaken once it had been ascertained that the camps had produced the gunmen behind the attack on the Coptic Christians in Minya, southern Egypt, on Friday morning.
"The terrorist incident that took place today will not pass unnoticed," Sisi said. "We are currently targeting the camps where the terrorists are trained."
He said Egypt would not hesitate to carry out further strikes against camps that trained people to carry out operations against Egypt, whether those camps were inside or outside the country.
Egyptian military footage of pilots being briefed and war planes taking off was shown on state television.
East Libyan forces said they participated in the air strikes, which had targeted forces linked to al-Qaeda at a number of sites, and would be followed by a ground operation.
A resident in Derna heard four powerful explosions, and told Reuters that the strikes had targeted camps used by fighters belonging to the Majlis al-Shura militant group.
Majlis al-Shura spokesman Mohamed al-Mansouri said in a video posted online that the Egyptian air strikes did not hit any of the group's camps, but instead hit civilian areas.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the Christians, which followed a series of church bombings claimed by Islamic State in a campaign of violence against the Copts.
Islamic State supporters reposted videos from earlier this year urging violence against the Copts in Egypt.
At a nearby village, thousands later attended a funeral service that turned into an angry protest against the authorities' failure to protect Christians.
"We will avenge them or die like them," mourners said, while marching with a giant wooden cross.
GUNFIRE AND BLOOD - Eyewitnesses said masked men opened fire after stopping the Christians, who were in a bus and other vehicles on a desert road. Local TV channels showed a bus apparently raked by gunfire and smeared with blood.
Clothes and shoes could be seen lying in and around the bus, while the bodies of some of the victims lay in the sand nearby, covered with black sheets.
Eyewitnesses said three vehicles were attacked. First to be hit was a vehicle taking children to the monastery as part of a church-organised trip, and another vehicle taking families there.
The gunmen boarded the vehicles and shot all the men and took all the women's gold jewellery. They then shot women and children in the legs.
When one of the gunmen's vehicles got a flat tire they stopped a truck carrying Christian workers, shot them, and took the truck.
One of the gunmen recorded the attack on the Copts with a video camera, eyewitnesses said.
The attack took place on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority.
Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.
Police armed with assault rifles formed a security perimeter around the attack site while officials from the public prosecutor's office gathered evidence. Heavily armed special forces arrived later wearing face masks and body armour.
The injured were taken to local hospitals and some were being transported to Cairo. The Health Ministry said that
among those injured were two children aged two. (Article continues.)
