Alexandria, kamikaze in front of church
massacre after midnight mass

ALEXANDRIA – Blood New Year’s Eve in Alexandria, where a car bomb exploded in front of a church at the end of midnight mass and killed 21 and wounded 79. According to the Egyptian Interior Minister it was a suicide bomber. In a speech on television, President Hosni Mubarak assured that the terrorists will not destabilize Egypt and will not share Christians and Muslims. In the attack, the president added, “there is a foreign hand”. According to al Jazeera, 17 people have already been arrested.

Meanwhile, violent clashes are taking place between a group of Coptic protesters and the police in front of the attack church. About 3,000 Christians – witnesses say on the spot – crowd the street, which was blocked at both ends by the police, and throw stones and cans turned into mini-molotovs against the police. In another part of the Alexandrian neighborhood of Sidi Bishr, where the Church of the Saints is located, a
peaceful demonstration of a thousand people, Christians and Muslims together, of solidarity and condolences for the victims, is underway. In the evening another interfaith solidarity event is scheduled in Cairo, in the popular district of Shubra, where many Christians live.

The attack was a blow to the large Christian community of Egypt and to the Copts of Alexandria. An eyewitness told ANSA of a “bloodbath”, followed by a bustle of ambulances between the battered bodies on the ground.

Last November, the Iraqi wing of Al Qaeda, after claiming a bloody attack on the Syrian-Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, had threatened the Egyptian Coptic community, particularly numerous among Middle Eastern Christians. Islamic terrorists had ordered to “free” two Egyptian Christians “held captive in monasteries” to prevent them from converting to Islam. The Copts are between 6 and 10% of the approximately 80 million inhabitants of Egypt.

Last night’s attack, which was not yet claimed, took place at half past midnight in the Sidi Bishr district of the great city overlooking the Mediterranean, in front of the Church of the Saints (Al-Qiddissine).

According to the reconstruction, the explosive-filled car was parked in front of the church ten minutes before the outbreak. A witness told the TV that he saw people get out of the vehicle, a Skoda. The outbreak, very strong, occurred when the faithful left the church and immediately spread to nearby cars, exploded multiplying the devastating effect.

The final death toll according to the Ministry of Health is 21, plus 79 wounded. After the attack, while ambulances were pacing back and forth to rescue the victims, exasperated groups of Copts began to attack Muslims in the surrounding streets. The Egyptian Ministry of the Interior imposed very tough security measures around all the churches and doubled the presence of agents to counter any possible attacks. Strict controls have also been imposed on the governorate of Marsa Matruh, on the coast and at the airport of Cairo to prevent the escape of the perpetrators of the attack.

“The Islamic effort to clean up the Middle East from Christians has increased”, a Coptic site writes with bitter irony. Al Azhar, instead, the highest instance of Sunni Islam, threw water on the fire, condemning the attack in Alexandria. In a statement released by the Egyptian news agency, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called “the Egyptians, Copts and Muslims, to preserve their unity in the face of terrorist forces that undermine the stability of the homeland and its unity”.

(01 January 2011)