Source: Madamasr
Author(s): N/A
Original Link: https://madamasr.com/en/2018/11/06/feature/politics/minya-attack-did-ashmawy-coordinate-al-qaeda-and-islamic-state-activities-in-egypt/
While the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Friday attack on a bus caravan making its way to the St. Samuel Coptic Orthodox Monastery, information has been slow to trickle in about the details behind the operation that left seven Coptic Christians dead and 20 more injured.
Amid a series of calls for retribution, capped by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s opening remarks at the World Youth Forum on November 3, the Interior Ministry announced on Sunday that security forces had killed 19 individuals, describing them as “members of the terrorist cell that carried out the Minya attack.” The details were sparse, however.
In light of this opacity, the public has been left to grasp at small details to try to piece together what led to Friday’s violence. And while there has been accounts that foist criticism on the state’s provision of security to Coptic Christians as “sterile and just for show,” some of the details of Friday’s resurgence of militant violence in Upper Egypt coupled with what Libyan military sources have told Mada Masr also open onto larger questions of the existence and relationship between militant groups, both inside and outside Egypt.
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