Egyptian army says it ‘destroyed vehicles’ used in Sinai mosque massacre

Egyptian air force jets have destroyed vehicles used in the Sinai mosque attack and “terrorist” locations where weapons and ammunition were stocked, an Egyptian army spokesman said late Friday.

The planes “destroyed several vehicles used in the attack,” Tamer el-Refai said, adding they also targeted “terrorist spots containing weapons and ammunition.”

Earlier, an unconfirmed report on Sky News Arabia said unmanned Egyptian military drones had attacked two cars used by the terrorists in a desert area called al-Risha, and killed 15 jihadists. The source added that the hunt for other perpetrators was ongoing.

There was no official word from Egypt’s military on the matter.

A bomb explosion tore through the Rawdah mosque in Egypt’s restive North Sinai province, and then armed attackers raked fleeing worshipers with gunfire.

As of Saturday, the death toll was at 305 and still rising. The mosque, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, was frequented by Sufis, considered heretics by the Islamic State group and other Islamists.

US President Donald Trump condemned as “horrible and cowardly” the attack, and called his counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to offer condolences.

“The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!” he wrote on Twitter.

In his tweet, Trump called it a “horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt.”

A White House readout of his call with Sisi said he “condemned the attack and reiterated that the United States will continue to stand with Egypt in the face of terrorism.”

It added: “The international community cannot tolerate barbaric terrorist groups and must strengthen its efforts to defeat terrorism and extremism in all its forms.”

The US president was spending the Thanksgiving weekend in Florida.