Islamic Militants Kill Seven Christians Returning From Baptism in Egypt

Gunmen killed at least seven Christians who were returning from baptizing a child at a Coptic monastery in Egypt on Friday, officials said -- the most serious attack on the minority in more than a year.

Six of the dead were from the same family, and another 18 people, including children, were wounded, the Coptic Church's spokesman said in a statement.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the ambush in Minya province in central Egypt, the militant group's Amaq news agency said, without providing evidence of its involvement.

The attackers opened fire mid-afternoon on two buses near the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor in Minya, 260 km (160 miles) up the River Nile from Cairo, the church spokesman said.

Footage posted on social media showed bodies inside a bus with apparent gunshot wounds. 

The attackers then fled, a witness at the monastery said.

Local resident Hilal told Reuters he rushed to the scene after hearing about the attack and saw the militants on the road.

"Some of us came to try and block the road. There were three four-wheel drive vehicles and the militants opened fire ... The militants wore white thobes and chequered head-dresses," he told Reuters.

'Dark terrorism'

Islamic State and affiliated groups have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Christians, including one that killed 28 people in almost the same spot in May 2017.

Islamists and jihadists in Egypt have targeted the Egyptian Coptic Christian minority for decades with bombings and mob attacks on Coptic churches, businesses, and homes. Many are sanctioned by fatwas from radical clerics, Salafist preachers, and Muslim Brotherhood muftis.

Since the June 2013 Revolution, Egypt's Christians have been blamed for Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi's ouster, with Islamist leaders vowing that Christians would pay a price. They carried through on those threats in August 2013, immediately after the Egyptian army wiped out the Brotherhood's Rabaa armed encampment. Islamists torched 66 Coptic owned buildings, including 49 churches.

Major attacks against Copts continued. A December 2016 bombing at Cairo's St. Mark Church killed 29 people and injured 48 others. A twin bombing four months later targeted a Palm Sunday service the St. Mark Church in Alexandria and St. George Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta north of Cairo. At least 45 people were killed and 126 were injured.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed to protect the Christian minority, but that message has not yet led to stricter enforcement of laws on assailants and radicals who incite violence.

Originally published at Algemeiner.com - reposted with permission.