Trump condemns ‘horrible and cowardly’ mosque attack in Egypt

US president says ‘world cannot tolerate terrorism,’ calls to defeat jihadists and discredit their ideology

US President Donald Trump welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to the West Wing of the White House, April 3, 2017. (Mark Wilson Wilson/Getty Images via JTA)
US President Donald Trump welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to the West Wing of the White House, April 3, 2017. (Mark Wilson Wilson/Getty Images via JTA)

US President Donald Trump condemned as “horrible and cowardly” a devastating bomb and gun attack Friday that killed more than 200 people at a mosque in Egypt.

“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.

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

Egyptians walk past bodies following a gun and bombing attack at the Rawdah mosque, roughly 40 kilometers west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, on November 24, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / STRINGER)

State media put the death toll at 235. The mosque, located roughly 40 kilometers west of the North Sinai capital of el-Arish, was frequented by Sufis.

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

The US president was spending the Thanksgiving weekend in Florida.

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