Cairo says Gaza terror group behind Coptic church attack

Egyptian interior minister: Al-Qaida linked group responsible for attack that killed 21; number of people detained in connection with bombing.

grieving egyptians_311 (photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
grieving egyptians_311
(photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
CAIRO — An al-Qaida-linked group in Gaza was behind the New Year's Day suicide bombing that killed 21 Christians and wounded about a hundred outside a church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the country's interior minister announced Sunday.
Habib al-Adly said the Gaza-based Army of Islam in Gaza was behind the attack, which sparked three days of Christian rioting in Cairo and several other cities. It was the deadliest attack against Christians in Egypt in more than a decade.
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Security officials said an unspecified number of people have been detained in connection with the bombing but gave no more details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media.
Late last year, the IDF killed three members of the Army of Islam in separate airstrikes, alleging the men had planned to attack targets in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.