Egypt identifies second church suicide bomber

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi, right, shakes hands with Pope Tawadros II, left, the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, at the Abassiya Cathedral in Cairo on April 13, 2017. The Egyptian presidency / Handout via ReutersShow less

CAIRO // Egypt’s interior ministry on Thursday identified the second suicide bomber in this week’s two Coptic church blasts in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria, which were claimed by ISIL and killed 45 people.

The Tanta bomber was named as Mamdouh Amin Mohamed Baghdadi, a resident of the city of Qena, south of Cairo, who was born in 1977.

Officials said he belonged to the same terrorist cell as the Alexandria suicide bomber who was named on Wednesday as petroleum company worker Mahmoud Hassan Mubarak Abdallah, 30.

The ministry published the names and pictures of others identified as members of the cell, which was also behind the December bombing of a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic cathedral – another attack claimed by ISIL.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi had pledged to hunt down the perpetrators of Sunday’s attacks as he visited Coptic Pope Tawadros II on Thursday and officials offered 100,000 Egyptian pounds (Dh20,207) for leads on the whereabouts of members of the terrorist cell involved.

Egypt has beefed up ­security outside churches across the country ahead of Easter Sunday in an attempt to restore a sense of security for the country’s Copts amid a war on the minority declared by ISIL.

A dozen high-ranking police officers were on Wednesday stationed at Cairo’s St Mark’s Cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox pope, searching cars and scanning the area.

The usually festive occasion of Easter is tainted with fear after the bombings in Tanta and Alexandria on Palm Sunday, which marks the start of the Coptic Christian Holy Week.

Many Copts fear the enhanced security will not stop attacks on churches.

“No security measure can stop a suicide bomber with jihadist beliefs from blowing up a church,” engineer Emad Thomas, a Copt, said.

He believes Copts will still ­attend prayers on Sunday – as they continued to go to church despite earlier attacks.

“Egypt’s Copts put their trust in God and not in security measures,” he said.

On Wednesday, a tank and five soldiers were stationed outside St Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Cairo’s central downtown. In the southern city of Assiut, security barriers closed off an area of about 100 metres around large churches.

A security source said agents would be dispersed ahead of Sunday’s prayers and a special unit was formed to receive reports about suspicious individuals in the vicinity of churches.

A military source said troops had started patrolling the city and would be stationed across town before Sunday.

In the neighbouring city of ­Minya, home to the highest Coptic Christian population in the country, the Coptic Orthodox Diocese said celebrations would be limited to liturgical prayers “without any festive manifestations”, in mourning for Sunday’s victims.

“The government should have taken these measures before the Coptic celebrations season and not after disaster struck,” said Coptic lawyer Peter Naggar.

The latest church bombings deal another blow to Egypt’s struggling tourism industry, which has suffered from political instability and a fragile security situation since the 2011 uprising.

The United States issued a travel warning on Wednesday, advising its nationals in Egypt to stay away from places of worship for the next two weeks and avoid crowds.

* Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse