Bomb blast kills dozens at Cairo Coptic church

A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral killed 25 people and wounded another 49 during Sunday Mass, one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory and a grim reminder of Egypt’s difficult struggle to restore security and stability after nearly six years of turmoil.

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. That group — called “Hasm,” or “Decisiveness” — and others suspected of links to the Brotherhood, have chiefly targeted members of the armed forces and police as well as judges, prosecutors and security officials. This, at least in theory, leaves the extremist Islamic State group as the chief suspect.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack. However, Islamic militants have targeted Christians in the past, including a New Year’s Day bombing at a church in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in 2011 that killed at least 21 people.

More recently, churches and Christian property in southern Egypt have been targeted in the weeks and months that followed the military’s 2013 ouster of an Islamist president. Those were blamed on Brotherhood supporters and ultraorthodox Salafi Muslims. The Islamic State has targeted Christians in the Sinai Peninsula, where it primarily wages attacks against security forces. (AP)