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Sunday, December 11, 2016

Bombing at Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral kills 25

CAIRO (AP) — A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral killed 25 people and wounded another 49 during Sunday mass, in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. The attack came two days after a bomb elsewhere in Cairo killed six policemen, an assault claimed by a shadowy group that authorities say is linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt's official MENA news agency said an assailant lobbed a bomb into a chapel close to the outer wall of St Mark's Cathedral, seat of Egypt's Orthodox Christian church and home to the office of its spiritual leader, Pope Tawadros II, who is currently visiting Greece. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's attack, which has drawn a flurry of condemnations by government and religious leaders as well as assertions of unity between Egypt's Muslim majority and Christians, who account for about 10 percent of the country's 92 million people. The church and many Christians have since rallied behind el-Sissi, although there have been growing voices of dissent within the community, arguing that little has changed in their lives under his rule, with their churches and property frequently attacked or torched by mobs of villagers led by militants in provinces south of Cairo.


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