ISIL claims deadly Cairo church bombing

ISIL also threatened to continue attacks against 'every infidel and apostate in Egypt, and everywhere'.

Pallbearers carrying a coffin as relatives of one of the victims of the Coptic Christian cathedral complex bomb attack mourn during the burial service in Cairo, Egypt on December 12, 2016. ISIL has claimed responsibility for the attack which killed 25 people. Mohamed Hossam/EPAShow less

CAIRO // ISIL has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a Cairo church that killed 25 people in one of the worst attacks on the Coptic Christian community in recent years.

ISIL identified the suicide bomber who carried out Sunday’s attack by the pseudonym Abu Abdallah Al Masri in a statement circulated on social media on Tuesday.

The bomber “got in between the crowd” and detonated his explosive belt, the extremist group said, threatening to continue attacks against “every infidel and apostate in Egypt, and everywhere”.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi had named the suicide bomber as 22-year-old Mahmoud Shafik Mohamed Mostafa during a funeral for the victims.

Egyptian authorities are battling an Islamist insurgency led by an Egyptian affiliate of ISIL.

While most of the insurgents’ attacks have mainly targeted police and military in northern Sinai province, the extremists have also targeted security forces and government officials in Cairo.

The attacks have worsened since president Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 2013 in a campaign led by Mr El Sisi, who was defence minister at the time.

Following the deadly dispersal by security forces of two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo in August 2013, mobs attacked more than 40 churches nationwide, as well as dozens of schools, houses and businesses belonging to Copts.

Mr El Sisi said Mostafa, the suspected suicide bomber, had detonated his explosive belt at the St Peter and St Paul Church, which is adjacent to St Mark’s Cathedral, the seat of the Coptic pope.

The interior ministry said on Monday that Mostafa had been identified by DNA tests from body parts which matched that of his family.

It also said the suspect was working with a group that received logistical and financial support from Muslim Brotherhood – a charge the group has denied.

* Agence France-Presse