At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb attacks on two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday, in the latest assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which come a week before Coptic Easter and in the same month that Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Egypt.
The first bombing, in Tanta, a Nile Delta city less than 100 kilometers outside Cairo, killed at least 25 and injured at least 78, Egypt’s Ministry of Health said.
The second, carried out just a few hours later by a suicide bomber in Alexandria, hit the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 11, including three police officers, and injuring 35, the ministry added.
Pope Tawadros, who had attended mass at Saint Mark’s Cathedral, was still in the building at the time of the explosion but was not harmed, the Ministry of Interior said.
Updated map locating an attacks on a church in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria – AFP / AFP / JONATHAN STOREY
From Facebook friend, Cheri Nocita Berens, who lives in Cairo:
Authorities have dispatched bomb dismantlers. Seems there are even more bombs. Other photo is of a policeman who was near the blast at the church in Alex. What a horrible day.
Palm Sunday is a big deal here. People start making things out of palm branches a few days before and you can see them making them in the streets. Small and large crosses, hats with crosses, decorative fronds for the house, etc. The church was packed. So far the death toll is 26, with 71 injured. But the death toll will rise. Ministry of Health says many are critically injured.
CNN:
In Tanta, news footage shows people gathered at the church, singing hymns. The video then quickly switches to bars as harrowing screams and cries echo in the background.
“Everything is destroyed inside the church” and blood can be seen on marble pillars, said Peter Kamel, who saw the aftermath of the carnage.
It appeared the explosive device was placed near the altar, he said. Priests and the church choir were among the casualties.
Social media video showed crowds gathered outside the church shortly after the attack.
In Alexandria, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that police assigned to St. Mark’s stopped a terrorist with an explosive belt from breaking into the church. Along with civilians, a policeman, a policewoman and other police staff were killed.
Egyptian blogger Maged Butter told CNN he saw five or six ambulances and blood stains 100 meters away from the site of the explosion — near the church gate.
Stella's Place 
God please strengthen these martyrs, and all your people who survived. Holy Spirit, please descend upon these people, and all who call upon Your help. Please accept the fervent prayers of those who wish to stop the spread of evil. Guide us in Your ways oh Lord. Amen
ps: There is a reputable org that helps persecuted Christians in the Middle East. I have to get back to cleaning up, but I will get the info, even if it is tomorrow.
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Amen.
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This is just awful…………..which doesn’t even come close to describing it. SMH
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Why do I feel like an extra in Groundhog Day? One of myvearliest posts next door was on the Egyptian government’s unofficial program of exterminating the Copts. Whereas the top Egyptian officials do not openly come out and support the pogrom thry do precious little to stop it.
The Copts are regularly discriminated against, and that includes beaten and killed. Coptic churches are regularly burned, it seems its only the major bombings with heavy loss of life that make our MSM take notice.
Major Coptic Christian holidays are particularly bad times for bombings, they are casualty heavy and send a clear message to all concerned. The Islamists in the Egyptian government have been trying to stamp out thebCopts for centuries – when I visited the 1600 year old monastic site the monks made sure we saw the ways the main doors were constructed. They were huge, castle drawbridge size, but built in were smaller entry doors that were specifically built so that Moslem raiders couldn’t enter the grounds on their horses…and that was a thousand years ago.
So let’s see if the Egyptians actually catch, try and convict anyone…if so it would be a rarity. It’s not as if you can buy high explosives at the Cairo Quickie Mart but they keep mysteriously showing up just in time to blow up a Coptic church right before a major Christian holiday.
The Coptic Church has been around for over 2000 years and, in some form, will probably survive despite our actively ignoring over a thousand years of Islamic attempts to destroy it, so let’s see if the Egyptians have anything planned for Easter.
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TY.
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News is saying ISIS is taking credit, but then they’d take credit for my flat tire last week had they known about it. To mebthe key finger pointing at the Egyptian military is Pope Tawadros being there, what a better way to decapitate the church through an action? Also the mass he was attending was at St Mark’s church, and St Mark is credited with founding the Coptic church. Seeing an operational propaganda theme here?
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I keep on waiting for the brass at New Orleans Police Department to start blaming inbercity shootings and murders on ISIS so they can bump up their miserable ‘solve’ rate.
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Do angels weep? It is so hard to understand.
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Easy to understand: Egyptian government and Egyptian Moslem murdering Religion of Peace want to destroy the Coptic Church. Hard to accept is more like it.
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BTW, US government under both Republican and Democratic presidents OK, Congress too) have been turning their heads and allowing this to go on for decades so as not to anger the Egyptians as we ‘need’ them as strategic ‘allies’.
In God We Trust…when it’s convenient.
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Yes, very hard to accept.
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“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
–Psalm 116:15–
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I just heard on FOX and FRIENDS Louis Gohmert say that it says in the new Egyptian constitution “they will rebuild the churches.”
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Such a tragedy. God bless them.
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