Egypt forces hit jihadist camp after attack on Copts — Sissi

Egyptian forces hit a jihadist training camp Friday in retaliation for an attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians that killed at least 28 people, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said.

The move came as US President Donald Trump issued a statement on the killings, calling on allies to band together to defeat terrorism.

“The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished,” Trump said in a statement issued by his press office.

“Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilization, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil.”

In a televised address to Egypt’s people, the former army chief said: “Before we spoke to you today, we launched a strike against one of the camps” where jihadists train.

“Egypt will not hesitate in striking terror camps anywhere, either inside (the country) or outside it,” Sissi added.

The Egyptian president did not say where his forces struck on Friday. However, state television said that Egypt’s air force launched six air strikes Friday against “terror camps in Libya.”

It said jihadist training camps in the eastern Libyan city of Derna were hit.

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There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side.

In February 2015, Egypt carried out air strikes against the Islamic State group in Libya after a graphic video was released showing the beheading there of 21 Christians, almost all Egyptian Copts.

And earlier this month Egypt’s air force destroyed 15 vehicles carrying weapons and ammunition after they illegally entered the country from Libya.

“We will protect our people and Egypt’s national security from evil,” Sissi said in his televised address.

He also addressed Trump, saying: “You have said that your priority is to confront terrorism, and I trust you are capable of doing that.”

Masked gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians on a visit to a monastery south of the Egyptian capital on Friday, killing at least 28 people including children, officials said.

The assailants in three pick-up trucks attacked the bus as it carried visitors to the Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province, more than 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Cairo, before fleeing, the interior ministry said.

It was the latest attack on Copts after Islamic State (IS) group jihadists bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.

Pictures of the bus aired by state television showed the vehicle riddled with machinegun fire and its windows shot out.

Cellphone footage and pictures circulated on Egyptian media sites showed several victims who had apparently been shot dead scattered in the desert sand around the bus.

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.

Bedawi said police were fanning out along the road where the attack took place and had set up checkpoints.

State television reported that the attack killed 28 people, citing the health minister.

The latest attack came after jihadists had threatened more strikes against the Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 90-million population.

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”.December 11, next to the seat of the Coptic pope, killing 29 people.

On April 11, bombers attacked two churches north of Cairo on Palm Sunday, killing 45 people, in the deadliest strike in living memory against the Copts.

The Copts’ Pope Tawadros II had been leading a service in one of the two churches attacked that day.