Sunday, January 2, 2011

21 Killed in Egyptian Church Bombing; Copts Clash with Police


Worshippers returned to services on Sunday in a Church that was the target of a suspected suicide bombing that killed 21 and wounded more than 90 on New Year's Eve.

The attack targeted Coptic Christian worshippers attending New Year's Eve services at the Saint's Church in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. Egyptian authorities initially believed that the blast came from a car bomb, but the Interior Ministry said it was more likely the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber among the crowd in the street outside of the church.

In the days following the attack, Copts in Alexandria and Cairo have taken to the streets to protest inadequate security and ended up clashing with police.

Egyptian authorities have been looking into passenger manifests of flights arriving from Iraq (where Al Qaeda in Iraq issued statements threatening Christians in Egypt after carrying out attacks against Christians in Iraq) for any evidence of an Al Qaeda financier or recruiters linked to the New Year's eve attack, but the investigation seems to be mainly focusing on Egyptian-based radical Muslim groups at present.

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