At least 28 killed in ambush attack on Christians in EgyptCAIRO – Masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery south of Cairo on Friday, killing at least 28 people, and Egypt responded by launching airstrikes against what it said were militant training bases in Libya.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi announced the retaliatory action hours after the bus was riddled with machine-gun fire on a remote desert road by suspected Islamic State militants riding in three SUVs.
"What you've seen today will not go unpunished. An extremely painful strike has been dealt to the bases. Egypt will never hesitate to strike terror bases anywhere," el-Sissi said in a televised address to the nation.
He also appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to lead the global war against terror.
The ambush of the bus was the fourth deadly attack against the country's Christians since December. The dead included two little girls, ages 2 and 4, local officials said. Twenty-two others were reported wounded.
Trump, in Italy on his first trip abroad as president, blamed the bloodshed on a "thuggish ideology" and said it should bring nations together to crush "evil organizations of terror."
"Either we get retribution or die like them," chanted by crowds to Sissi.