As many as 28 men, women and children were killed Friday when masked gunmen opened fire on a caravan of Coptic Christian pilgrims heading to a monastery south of Cairo, according to Egyptian security and health officials.
The attack came one month after Pope Francis visited Egypt in part to show his support for the Christians of the Muslim majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants.
Although no group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack, the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt vowed — following the pope's visit — to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and western embassies as they are targets of their group’s militants.
While the official toll from Friday's attack was 26, according to Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mugahed, Egyptian security and medical officials told the Associated Press that 28 people were dead, and 22 injured. The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Mugahed said the gunmen, riding in three 4 x 4 vehicles, ambushed a minibus and two cars of pilgrims heading along a desert road to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor in the Minya governorate, about 130 miles south of the Egyptian capital.
The ministry said there were between eight and 10 attackers dressed in military uniforms, according to witnesses.
The statement said the assailants were 'randomly shooting' on the caravan of pilgrims, according to AhramOnline.
The victims ranged in age from children to over 60, the bishop of Minya told Egyptian the privately owned TV Channel DMC.
The MENA news agency reported that dozens of roadblocks were thrown up along the highway to try to track down the gunmen. Minya is located in Upper Egypt on the left bank of the Nile River.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called a meeting of his security council as the government vowed to track down the killers. The prime minister and the ministers of health and social headed to the scene of the attack, which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Egypt has been fighting Islamic State group-linked militants who have waged an insurgency, mainly focused in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula but there have been also attacks on the mainland.
The armed assault is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Egypt’s Christians following a pair of suicide bombings on Palm Sunday..
The bombers, striking on April 9, attacked St. George's Cathedral in Tanta, killing 29 people, and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing 18.
During the pope's visit to Egypt in late April, Francis paid tribute to the victims of the December bombing at Cairo’s St. Peter’s church, which is located in close proximity to the St. Mark’s cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Egypt’s Copts, the Middle East’s largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at hands of the country’s majority Muslim population.
Over the past decades, they have been the immediate targets of Islamic extremists. They rallied behind el-Sissi, the general-turned-president, in 2013 when he ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group. Attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches subsequently surged, especially in the country’s south.
The militant Islamic group Hamas that rules Gaza condemned Friday's attack, the Associated Press reported. Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum in a statement Friday called the shooting “an ugly crime,” of which “the enemies of Egypt” are the only beneficiaries.
The Palestinian militant group is seeking to improve relations with neighboring Egypt.
Contributing: Associated Press
