WarSclerotic

Masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 26 others as they were driving to a monastery, medical sources and eyewitnesses said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Minya Province Governor Essam al-Bedaiwy said the group’s bus came under attack as it was traveling on the road to the St. Samuel Monastery in Minya, about 220 kilometers (136 miles) south of Cairo.

Minya is home to a sizable Christian minority, he said.

The Egyptian Health Ministry said witnesses had reported that between eight and 10 terrorists dressed in military uniforms carried out the attack.

Eyewitnesses said the Copts were attacked as they were going to pray at the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in the western part of the province.

They said masked men stopped the vehicles on a road leading to the monastery and opened fire.

Egypt has been fighting Islamic State group-linked militants who have carried out attacks mainly in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula, but there have been also attacks on the mainland.

Coptic Christians, who make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 92 million, have been the victims of a series of deadly attacks in recent months, including twin suicide bombings in April and another attack in December on a Cairo church that left over 75 people dead and scores wounded. The Islamic State group in Egypt claimed responsibility for those attacks and vowed more attacks.

About 70 people have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December