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Egypt mosque attack kills at least 85 people, says state news agency Egypt mosque attack: state TV raises death toll to 155
(35 minutes later)
At least 85 people have been killed and dozens more wounded after suspected militants targeted a mosque in Egypt’s north Sinai with a bomb and gunfire, the Mena state news agency reported on Friday. At least 155 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a devastating bomb and gun attack targeting a mosque in Egypt’s north Sinai, state television has reported.
Eyewitnesses reported ambulances ferrying casualties from the scene to nearby hospitals after the attack on al-Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of Arish city. Another 75 people were wounded, Mena reported. It said its tolls were based on an official source. More than 50 ambulances ferried casualties from the scene to nearby hospitals after the attack on al-Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of Arish city. At least 85 people were injured, the Mena news agency reported. The death toll rose repeatedly on Friday afternoon as more details emerged.
Officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers. Militants in four off-road vehicles approached the mosque as Friday prayers were finishing and opened fire at worshippers, a military source told the Guardian. Investigation teams from the army and police are roaming the area and “chasing down the perpetrators”, he added.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television reported. No group claimed responsibility for the assault, but it was the deadliest yet in the region where for three years Egyptian security forces have battled an Islamic State insurgency that has killed hundreds of police and soldiers.
Egypt’s security forces are battling an Islamic State insurgency in north Sinai, where militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers since fighting there intensified over the last three years. An eyewitness said by phone that he ran to towards the scene after hearing a big blast and shots being fired. Local people rushed to find their relatives, as bodies were wrapped in cloth were laid out on the road, the witness added.
Militants have mostly targeted security forces in their attacks, but have also tried to expand beyond the peninsula by hitting Egyptian Christian churches and pilgrims. A local resident whose relatives were at the scene told Reuters that the gunmen shot at people as they left the mosque, and also at the ambulances.
No one has claimed Friday’s attack. Local people said some of the worshippers were sufis – regarded by hardliners such as Islamic State as apostates because they revere saints and shrines, which for Islamists is tantamount to idolatry.
More details soon … President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militants in the region, convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television said.
Militants have mostly targeted security forces in their attacks since bloodshed in the Sinai worsened after 2013 when Sisi, then an armed forces commander, led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
But jihadis have also targeted local Sinai tribes that are working with the armed forces, branding them traitors for cooperating with the army and police.
In July this year, at least 23 soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs hit two military checkpoints in the Sinai, an attack claimed by Islamic State.
Militants have tried to expand beyond the largely barren, desert Sinai Peninsula into Egypt’s heavily populated mainland, hitting Coptic Christian churches and pilgrims.
In May, gunmen attacked a Coptic group travelling to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing 29.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report