Leaders condemn Sinai attack

President Xi Jinping offers his deep condolences to Egyptian counterpart

World leaders and officials strongly condemned Friday's deadly terrorist attack on a mosque in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which claimed the lives of at least 305 people.

At noon on Friday, some 25 to 30 assailants bombed and opened fire at the mosque, killing 305 worshippers, including 27 children, and wounding 128 others, according to Egyptian authorities. It was the first terrorist operation to target a Muslim mosque in Egypt's modern history.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a message of condolences to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to offer his deep condolences and sincere sympathy to President Sisi, the families of the victims and the injured.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also stressed that China will join hands with Egypt to firmly oppose any forms of terrorism.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "The murder of civilians in the course of an act of worship is striking with its cruelty and cynicism," confirming that Russia was ready to further enhance cooperation with Egypt in fighting international terrorism.

US President Donald Trump offered condolences to the people of Egypt after the "heinous" attack. "There can be no tolerance for barbaric groups that claim to act in the name of a faith but attack houses of worship and murder the innocent and defenseless while at prayer," said the White House.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the attack, extended his deepest condolences, and wished a swift recovery to those who have been injured.

The Egyptian army said warplanes had struck militant hideouts in the insurgency-wracked North Sinai in retaliation for the attack.

According to the state prosecutor, up to 30 militants in camouflage flying the Islamic State group's black banner had surrounded the mosque and massacred the worshippers during weekly Friday prayers.

Twenty-seven children were among the dead, it said.

IS has not claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is the main suspect as the mosque is associated with followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam whom it has branded heretics.

Funerals for the victims were held overnight and many were buried unwashed in their bloodied clothes, according to the Islamic burial practices for martyrs, security and medical officials said.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared three days of mourning and vowed to "respond with brutal force" to the attack, among the deadliest in the world since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period," he said in a televised speech.

Hours later Egyptian air force jets pursued the "terrorists and discovered several vehicles used in the terrorist attack, killing those inside near the vicinity of the attack", an army spokesman said.

'Darkness pervades'

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that 305 people were killed and 128 wounded in the assault on the Rawda mosque in a village roughly 40 kilometers west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish.

It said the attackers, with long beards and hair often seen on jihadists, arrived in five all-terrain vehicles and surrounded the mosque.

Witnesses said they heard gunshots and explosions before the assailants entered the mosque, according to the prosecution.

"Nobody in that mosque escaped unharmed," said the brother of the mosque's imam, or prayer leader, Mohamed Abdel Fattah.

"He was shot in the foot," the brother, Ahmed, told AFP in a phone call, adding that the religious leader was still in "too much shock" to speak.

One of the wounded, Magdy Rizk, said assailants wore masks and military uniforms, and that extremists had previously threatened people in the area.

Relatives visited victims in hospital in the city of Ismailia near the Suez Canal where the wounded were taken for treatment, an AFP photographer reported.

Locals and relatives of people living in the village where the attack happened said the Rawda mosque was prominent.

"This is the largest mosque in the area. It is the parent mosque, where events take place, funerals and weddings. When full it has 600 or 700 people," said Ahmed Sweilam, whose cousins live in the village.

"Darkness pervades the village now."

Xinhua - AFP

(China Daily 11/27/2017 page11)