Egyptian Copts will celebrate Easter mass on Saturday, marking one of Christianity’s most joyous occasions just days after the deadliest attacks in living memory against the country’s religious minority. The faithful will spend a large part of Easter eve going through arduous security checks outside places of worship, after twin Palm Sunday bombings killed 45 … Read more
Egyptian Copts observed a solemn Good Friday with prayers and fasting, as the community reeled from two church bombings that killed dozens on Palm Sunday. The government had declared a state of emergency and called in the army to protect “vital” installations following last week’s suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group. But in … Read more
Egyptian Copts observed a solemn Good Friday with prayers and fasting, as the community reeled from two church bombings that killed dozens on Palm Sunday. The government had declared a state of emergency and called in the army to protect “vital” installations following last week’s suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group. But in … Read more
Thousands of Christians from around the world marked Good Friday in Jerusalem’s Old City, retracing the steps Jesus Christ is believed to have taken carrying his cross to his crucifixion. Through the Old City’s narrow alleyways, pilgrims and Palestinian Christians carried wooden crosses, icons and flags of their respective countries in a procession under heavy … Read more
Thousands of Christians from around the world marked Good Friday in Jerusalem’s Old City, retracing the steps Jesus Christ is believed to have taken carrying his cross to his crucifixion. Through the Old City’s narrow alleyways, pilgrims and Palestinian Christians carried wooden crosses, icons and flags of their respective countries in a procession under heavy … Read more
Egypt’s interior ministry said on Wednesday it had identified the suicide bomber behind a deadly attack at the weekend outside a church in the coastal city of Alexandria. The ministry said Mahmud Hassan Mubarak Abdullah had carried out the attack outside Saint Mark’s church in Alexandria on Palm Sunday that killed 17 people and was … Read more
For years, Egyptian Copt Michel Fahmy could hear a Muslim preacher invoking God’s wrath on Christians in sermons blared over loudspeakers from a mosque near his home. The radical message, he says, is a reason for jihadist attacks on his minority like the twin bombings of churches on Sunday that killed 45 people. Sunday’s attacks … Read more
Egypt’s Coptic Church announced on Wednesday that it would cut back Easter celebrations to a simple mass after twin bombings killed 45 worshippers last weekend. “Given the current circumstances and our solidarity with the families of the dead, we are going to limit our celebrations to Easter mass,” a statement said. The traditional handing out … Read more
Egypt’s parliament on Tuesday unanimously approved a three-month state of emergency declared by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after deadly church bombings, state-run Nile News television reported. The measure was published in Egypt’s official gazette on Monday and said to have come into effect at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) the same day, after 45 Coptic Christians … Read more
Funerals have been held in Alexandria for victims of one of the two bomb attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt by so-called Islamic State (IS). The ceremony at the Monastery of St Mina took place under heavy security. At least 45 people died in the bombings in Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta … Read more
Mourners crowded into a monastery for the ceremony Funerals have been held in Egypt for victims of Sunday’s suicide bombing outside a cathedral in Alexandria. Mourners crowded into a monastery for the ceremony, and the building was filled with the sound of Coptic prayers and chanting. In the aftermath of the attack a three-month state … Read more
Egypt security forces have killed seven suspected Islamic State group sympathisers thought to be planning attacks against Coptic Christians, the interior ministry said Monday, a day after deadly twin church bombings. “A group of Daesh sympathisers were hiding in one of Assiut province’s mountainous areas”, the ministry said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym … Read more
Pope Francis will visit Egypt as planned this month despite the weekend bombings of two Coptic Christian churches that killed 44 people, a Vatican official said. “There is no doubt the Holy Father will maintain his offer to go to Egypt” on April 28 and 29, Monsignor Angelo Becciu, the Holy See’s number three, said … Read more
The Egypt bomb blasts occurred on Palm Sunday; a Christian feast commemorating the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem… Two bomb blasts struck two Coptic Churches in Egypt, killing at least 40 people on one of the most important days on the Christian calendar -Palm Sunday. The first blast which struck in the city of Tanta, about … Read more
Egypt prepared to impose a state of emergency Monday after jihadist bombings killed dozens at two churches in the deadliest attacks in recent memory on the country’s Coptic Christian minority. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced the three-month period, which will vastly increase the powers of Egypt’s security forces, after the Islamic State group claimed the … Read more
Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has announced a three-month state of emergency after attacks on two Coptic churches that left at least 44 dead. The measure allows authorities to make arrests without warrants and search people’s homes. It needs to be approved by parliament before it is implemented. So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was … Read more
The twin bombings of churches in Egypt suggest that Islamic State group jihadists are lashing out as they find themselves coming under increasing pressure in Iraq and Syria, analysts say. The group’s Egyptian affiliate which claimed Sunday’s attacks in the Nile Delta cities of Tanta and Alexandria has been centred in the Sinai Peninsula, where … Read more
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has declared a state of emergency after two deadly bombings Sunday, the first at a church north of Cairo, the second hours later outside a church in Alexandria, that were claimed by the Islamic State group. “Islamic State squads carried out the attacks on two churches in Tanta and Alexandria,” … Read more
Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has announced a three-month state of emergency after attacks on two Coptic churches that left at least 44 dead. The measure allows authorities to make arrests without warrants and search people’s homes. It needs to be approved by parliament before it is implemented. So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was … Read more
Egypt in state of emergency after attacks on Coptic churches Egypt’s president has announced a three-month state of emergency after attacks on two Coptic churches that killed at least 45 people. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi had earlier ordered the deployment of the military across the country. So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the blasts … Read more