Militants armed with guns and explosives stormed a crowded mosque in Egypt’s restive northern Sinai on Friday, killing at least 235 people and wounding 109 others in the deadliest single attack in the country, Bloomberg reports.
The attacked stunned the nation, drew international condemnation and triggered air raids by Egypt’s military. Attacks on mosques are rare in Egypt, but Sufis are considered heretics by jihadist movements such as Islamic State, Bloomberg adds.
The Sinai Peninsula, a triangular piece of land bordering Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal, has been the main battleground in the government’s fight against local militants who’ve declared allegiance to Islamic State.
Islamic State-Sinai Province has killed hundreds of police and soldiers in recent years. Over the past 12 months, it has turned its guns increasingly on civilians, with attacks on churches packed for Christmas and Easter prayers, and now on Muslim worshipers.
“This is a shift in the tactics of the terrorists. An attack on civilians at Friday prayers is not something we have been used to seeing,” said Hossam El-Rifai, a member of parliament for northern Sinai.
President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi made a televised statement vowing to avenge the dead and restore stability. He also said that those who supported, financed or incited the attack would face justice. “We will respond to this act with brutal force,” Al-Sisi said.
Overnight, the army said it launched airstrikes that destroyed some of the vehicles used by the attackers as well as hitting jihadist hideouts containing weapons and ammunition stores. The armed forces are continuing to comb the area, according to a statement on the army’s Facebook page, Bloomberg writes.
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