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Egypt: At least 27 killed in church bombing

Egypt’s Christian population was hit with yet another Muslim terror attack. 

A bomb exploded in a church north of Cairo that was packed with Palm Sunday worshippers, killing at least 27 people and wounding scores of others.

It is unclear if the explosion was caused by a bomb planted in the church or if a suicide bomber detonated himself inside the house of worship.

The attack, in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, was the latest in a series of assaults by Islamic terrorists on Egypt’s Christian minority, which makes up around 10 percent of the population.

It comes just weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit Egypt.

CBC TV showed footage from inside the church, where a large number of people gathered around what appeared to be lifeless, bloody bodies covered with papers.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The wounded, at least 50, were transferred to a military hospital.

A local Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate claimed a suicide bombing at a church in Cairo in December that killed around 30 people, mostly women, as well as a string of killings in the restive Sinai Peninsula that caused hundreds of Christians to flee to safer areas of the country.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the pre-eminent seat of Sunni scholarship in the Muslim world, issued a condemnation of the bombing, saying it was a “heinous crime.”

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Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely stated after the terror attack in Egypt that “terror doesn’t stop in Stockholm, St. Petersburg​, Berlin, London or Jerusalem. Today’s terror attack near Cairo reminds us that Egypt too is under attack. Alongside the sorrow and grief, we need to join forces against the forces of evil and terror with an iron fist. Israel is part of the international campaign against terror wherever it strikes and is ready to assist in order to rein it in.”

An Islamic terror group called Liwa al-Thawra claimed responsibility for an April 1 bomb attack targeting a police training center in Tanta, which wounded 16 people. The group, believed to be linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, has mainly targeted security forces and distanced itself from attacks on Christians.

Egypt has struggled to combat a wave of Islamic militancy since the 2013 military overthrow of an elected Islamist president.

By: World Israel News Staff
AP contributed to this report.