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ISIS Claims 2 Deadly Explosions at Egyptian Coptic Churches on Palm Sunday

(New York Times) Magdy Samaan and Declan Walsh - Suicide bombers attacked two Coptic churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday, killing at least 40 worshipers and police officers stationed outside. Islamic State claimed responsibility for both attacks. The first explosion occurred at St. George's Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, 50 miles north of Cairo, where a suicide bomber barged past security measures and detonated in the front pews. At least 27 people were killed and 71 others injured. A second explosion at the gates of St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria killed 13 people and wounded 21. The patriarch of the Egyptian Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, was in the church at the time but was not injured. A Coptic church official in Alexandria said a police officer at the church gates intercepted a suicide bomber, who blew himself up before he could reach the church. Two police officers and a neighborhood police chief were among the dead. Egyptian security officials found and defused several other explosive devices. A bomb had been planted at the College Saint Marc, a boys school in downtown Alexandria. Two others were found at the Sidi Abdel Rahim Mosque in Tanta, a famous Sufi shrine.
2017-04-10 00:00:00
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