(The AEGIS Alliance) – In what is one of the deadliest singular attacks in the history of the Egyptians, ISIS Daesh terrorists carried out a major attack in Bir al-Abed, located in the Sinai Peninsula, targeted a Sufi mosque, and killed over 305 people, injuring at least 128 others. The death toll is expected to continue rising even further. The death toll included 27 children, say officials. The attack happened Friday, the 24th of November, 2017.
This attack began with a large bombing, which sparked a panic as people ran for the exits, and killed many. Around this time, additional gunmen arrived in four off-road type vehicles, and opened fire on the worshipers, killing many more people in the town of Al Rawdah. The militants are believed to have been targeting supporters of the security forces who were attending prayers. The state-run MENA news agency reports that the mosque is mainly attended by Sufi Muslims, which is a form of Islam and considered heretical by some extremists and conservatives such as the ISIS Daesh group.
Along with killing hundreds of people, the terrorists reportedly set many of the vehicles to flames in the parking lot to attempt trying to block ambulances from accessing the area. About 50 ambulances transferred victims to hospitals, according to Egypt’s Ministry of Health.
“there were many people inside the mosque — it’s only a small mosque.” A Health Ministry official stated to Al Jazeera TV, “Gunmen fired at worshippers fleeing the initial attack.” he mentioned.
The military of Egypt promises a ‘brute force’ way of retaliation, which is similar to their reaction to previous ISIS strikes in Sinai. This practice, often means destroying neighborhoods suspected to be ‘ISIS hideouts,’ and killing everyone within. Although such repeated purges seem to not have much impact on the effectiveness of the ISIS affiliate.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
