Rabat - Egypt has announced a three-day nationwide mourning after at least 235 people were killed and 130 were injured in a terrorist attack at Al Rawda mosque in Egypt’s North Sinai on Friday.
Rabat – Egypt has announced a three-day nationwide mourning after at least 235 people were killed and 130 were injured in a terrorist attack at Al Rawda mosque in Egypt’s North Sinai on Friday.
Masked terrorists unleashed a suicide bomb before gunfire broke out during the Friday prayer on the worshipers, some of whom were Egyptian army conscripts.
The attack occurred in the village of Bir Al-Abed, 40 kilometers away from El Arish, the capital of North Sinai province.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi denounced the attack, describing it as “criminal and “cowardly” in a televised statement on Friday.
He also said that the attack “will not go unpunished,” adding that the police will achieve vengeance for those who were killed.
“The armed forces and the police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability with the utmost force,” said the president.
The Egyptian military have also unleashed air strikes on targets in mountainous places around Bir al-Abed just hours after the attack, reported Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera.
Since the removal of the former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army, terrorist groups, including the Egyptian branch of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), have continuously attacked the Egyptian security forces in northern Sinai.
Many police and soldiers, as well as civilians, were killed in these attacks.
Egypt is also threatened by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists operating from Libya on the country’s western border.
A group called Ansar al-Islam, “the Supporters of Islam,” claimed an ambush in October in the western Egyptian desert that killed at least 16 policemen.
