Sisi bombs Libyan militants not involved in Egypt attack

REUTERS

Is Egypt bombing the right militants in Libya?

May 31, 2017 

Ahmed Aboulenein and Giles Elgood

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was quick to launch air strikes on militants in Libya in response to a deadly attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt - but the attacks do not seem to be targeting those responsible.

The response was popular with many Egyptians. The country's state-owned and private news media celebrated it as swift justice, but the president has been vague about exactly who he is attacking.

The strikes have been directed at Islamist groups other than Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for Friday's massacre of dozens in the southern province of Minya, and seem to be intended to shore up Sisi's allies in eastern Libya.

"The attacks in Minya were claimed by Islamic State, and there are Islamic State elements active in Libya, but the reports coming indicate Cairo is targeting other groups," said H.A. Hellyer, senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council.

In any case, analysts say the strikes will not do much against Islamists in Cairo, Sinai and Upper Egypt, where they have had a stronghold since the 1990s and have been attacking tourists, Copts and government officials.

Bombing the camps in Libya is seen as a diversion for a failure to defeat Islamists inside Egypt.

"It's easier to strike a terrorist camp in Libya by air than it is to clean up serious problems inside Egypt; sectarianism, radicalization, that led to this and other attacks," said Michele Dunne, director of Carnegie's Middle East program.

"All the horrific terrorism that is happening inside Egypt has purely domestic drivers and probably would be happening if Islamic State did not exist. It is not all that different from the home-grown terrorism Egypt experienced in the 1990s, before Al Qaeda or Islamic State even existed," she said.

 

Libyan Ally

Egyptian and Libyan officials said strikes had been launched on camps and ammunition stores belonging to the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council (DMSC). Areas targeted include the western entrance to Derna, Dahr al-Hamar in the south, and al-Fatayeh, a hilly area about 20 km (12 miles) from the city.

Yet the DMSC has never been involved in attacks outside Libya and in fact mostly limits its activities to Derna, rarely fighting in larger conflicts within Libya, according to Mohamed Eljarh, an Atlantic Council political analyst in Libya.

The group has denied taking part in attacks inside Egypt.

In fact, many suggest the air strikes had been planned in advance to shore up support for Sisi's main Libyan ally, Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), and that the Minya massacre was used as a pretext to launch them.

Forces loyal to Haftar, a military strongman like Sisi, have long been fighting the DMSC, cutting off supply routes to the city and hitting it with occasional air strikes. Despite the LNA's siege, the military situation in Derna has been in stalemate for months.

Egypt has also carried out strikes in Jufra, where the LNA has been fighting Islamists who fled Benghazi as well as forces linked to the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.

The LNA lost dozens of men there in a surprise attack on an air base earlier in May, but has since consolidated control.

The Minya attack was a catalyst for those inside the Egyptian government and military who are in favor of military intervention in Libya, said Mokhtar Awad, who researches extremism at George Washington University.

"This is Egypt taking action not because of the Minya attack but ... to drive out as many extremists as possible from the east," he said.

 

'They Are All Terrorists'

Egypt says it does not target specific groups but that it goes after all militants who could be a threat to its security. A military spokesman told state media on Monday that all the groups targeted have the same ideology as those who carried out the Minya massacre, which is reason enough to bomb them.

"Names are not important for us, they are all terrorists. Those who carried out the Minya operation do not necessarily have to be in these camps but their followers are," an Egyptian intelligence source told Reuters.

Eljarh also said it was likely the air strikes has been planned in advance and that the Minya attack was an opportunity to carry them out, as part of a larger policy towards supporting Haftar, with Egypt bombing groups that constitute the strongest opposition to him.

Egypt sees any militant activity in eastern Libya, which is near its border, as a threat to its national security. One of the reasons Sisi has supported Haftar since 2014 is to ensure that all Islamists are driven out of eastern Libya.

Sisi is getting more involved now because of improved relations with Washington, Eljarh said. He believes U.S President Donald Trump has given him the green light to fight jihadists in Libya and elsewhere.

When Sisi announced the first round of air strikes on television on Friday, he implored Trump to support him.

Trump, who has made a point of improving relations with Cairo, said his country stood with Sisi and the Egyptian people.

Egypt likely bombed wrong targets in Libya airstrikes - as a popular diversion

ANTI-WAR.COM

Egypt Is Likely Bombing the Wrong Targets in Libya Airstrikes Against Derna Are a Popular Diversion

 

May 31, 2017 

 
Jason Ditz

Last week, gunmen attacked a busload of Coptic Christians heading to a monastery in southern Egypt. ISIS was quick to claim credit for the strike, and by the end of the first day, Egypt’s military junta responded with a flurry of airstrikes against militant camps outside of Derna, Libya.

The attacks were popular domestically, so they did some more, and have continued throughout the week striking Derna’s camps, claiming they pose a direct threat to Egypt. Analysts, however, say this is really unlikely, and that indeed these camps almost certainly have nothing to do with the bus attack that preceded them.

Derna is well known as an Islamist hub, with a lot of small factions starting up there. Indeed, the ISIS affiliate in Libya was located there at one time, though that was years ago. If ISIS indeed did the bus attack, and signs are that they probably did, it was likely Egypt’s own ISIS affiliate, not Libya’s, and either way, they had nothing to do with the Derna camps being hit.

Egypt has had long-standing problems with Islamist militant groups attacking their Christian minority, and those attacks have almost exclusively been homegrown. Reacting by attacking something in Libya was a convenient distraction for the junta, and when the Egyptian public started cheering their firm response, they just kept doing it.

At this point, however, Egyptian officials are freely admitting that they are “not targeting specific groups” with their airstrikes in Derna, and that they’re hitting random camps on the assumption that “all the groups targeted have the same ideology” as the bus attackers, which is good enough for them.

Indeed some analysts believe that Egypt’s junta, long keen on exporting their style of government to Libya by backing Gen. Khalifa Hafter, had been drawing up plans for attacks around Derna and other Islamist hotbeds in eastern Libya long before the bus attack happened, and this just served as a useful pretext to go ahead with them.

UN rights chief says Sisi crackdown "facilitates radicalisation"

REUTERS
UN rights boss says Egypt crackdown 'facilitates radicalisation'

Mon May 1, 2017

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said on Monday that heavy-handed security measures by Egypt were fostering the very radicalisation it was looking to curb.

Egypt last month was shaken by one of the bloodiest attacks in years when Islamic State suicide bombers targeted two Christian churches, killing 45 people. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency hours later.

Zeid condemned the church attacks at a news conference in Geneva but said that Egypt's approach to combating Islamist militants was exacerbating the problem.

"...a state of emergency, the massive numbers of detentions, reports of torture, and continued arbitrary arrests - all of this we believe facilitates radicalisation in prisons," Zeid said.
 
She said "the crackdown on civil society" was "not the way to fight terror."

Responding, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid called the remarks an "irresponsible" and "unbalanced" reading of the situation in Egypt, where society is targeted by "terrorist operations," according to a statement from the ministry.

Abu Zeid defended the emergency law as passed by an elected parliament subject to "rules and restrictions" set out by the constitution.

"We don't see the High Commissioner criticizing other states implementing states of emergency that are dealing with similar conditions," the statement said.

Sisi, elected in 2014 in part on a pledge to restore stability to a country hit by years of turmoil since its 2011 uprising, has sought to present himself as an indispensable bulwark against terrorism in the Middle East.

Rights groups, however, say they face the worst crackdown in their history.

"National security yes, must be a priority for every country, but again not at the expense of human rights,” said Zeid.



*Photo by Pierre Albouy courtesy of REUTERS
**Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Robin Pomeroy

Incompetent dictator declares state-of-emergency after church bombings

BBC News
Egypt declares state of emergency after deadly church attacks

April 10, 2017

Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has announced a three-month state of emergency after attacks on two Coptic churches that left at least 44 dead.

The measure allows authorities to make arrests without warrants and search people's homes. It needs to be approved by parliament before it is implemented.

So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the blasts in Tanta and Alexandria on Palm Sunday.
The group has targeted Copts in Egypt recently and warns of more attacks.

Mr Sisi made a defiant speech at the presidential palace after a meeting of the national defence council to discuss the explosions.

He warned that the war against the jihadists would be "long and painful", and said that the state of emergency would come into force after all "legal and constitution steps" were taken. The majority in parliament backs Mr Sisi.

The president had earlier ordered the deployment of the military across the country to protect "vital and important infrastructure."

The move by Mr Sisi is likely to raise concerns among human rights activists, observers say. The president, a former army chief, has been criticised by local and international groups for severe restrictions on civil and political rights in Egypt.

Human Rights Watch says tens of thousands of people have been arrested in a crackdown on dissent, and that security forces have committed flagrant abuses, including torture, enforced disappearances and likely extrajudicial executions.

The attacks coincided with one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, marking the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem.

IS said that two suicide bombers carried out the blasts. One targeted St George's Coptic church in the northern city of Tanta, where 27 people were killed, the health ministry said.

 

Hours later, police stopped the bomber from entering the St Mark's Coptic church in Alexandria, also in the north. He detonated his explosives outside, leaving 17 dead, including several police officers.
"Crusaders and their apostate allies should know the bill between us and them is very big and they will pay it with rivers of blood from their children, god willing. Wait for us, for we will wait for you," the jihadist group said in a statement quoted by Reuters news agency.

The blasts came weeks before an expected visit by Pope Francis intended to show support for the country's Christians, who make up about 10% of Egypt's population and have long complained of being vulnerable and marginalised.

This sense of precariousness has only increased in recent years, with the rise of violent jihadism in parts of Egypt, the BBC's Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says.

The community's trust in the state's ability and willingness to protect them will now be even more deeply shaken after the attacks, our correspondent adds.

---------- 
*Photos courtesy of Reuters and EPA, respectively
----------

State of emergency measures include:

• Further restrictions on freedom of movement and gatherings
• Monitoring of all forms of communication
• Entitles president to confiscate or shut down media outlets
• Allows any property to be placed under control of security forces
• Deployment of security forces to enforce measures
• Arrest of anyone suspected of violating state of emergency

 _____________

Copts in Egypt: Recent developments

• December 2016: 25 people died when a bomb exploded at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo during a service. IS said it was behind the attack
• February 2016: A court sentenced three Christian teenagers to five years in prison for insulting Islam. They had appeared in a video, apparently mocking Muslim prayers, but claimed they had been mocking IS following a number of beheadings
• April 2013: Two people were killed outside St Mark's cathedral in Cairo when people mourning the death of four Coptic Christians killed in religious violence clashed with local residents

After church bombing,100s gather outside cathedral chant slogans against gov't & interior minister

New York Times
Attack on Coptic Cathedral in Cairo Kills Dozens

DECLAN WALSH and NOUR YOUSSEF 

Sunday DEC. 11, 2016

 

CAIRO — A bomb ripped through a section reserved for women at Cairo’s main Coptic cathedral during Sunday morning Mass, killing at least 25 people and wounding 49, mostly women and children, Egyptian state media said.

The attack was the deadliest against Egypt’s Christian minority in years. Video from the blast site circulating on social media showed blood-smeared floors and shattered pews among the marble pillars at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, the seat of Egypt’s Orthodox Christian Church, where the blast occurred in a chapel adjacent to the main building.

As security officials arrived to secure the site, angry churchgoers gathered outside and hurled insults, accusing them of negligence.

“There was no security at the gate,” one woman told reporters. “They were all having breakfast inside their van.”

A man asked, “You’re coming now after everything was destroyed?”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, although the attack bore the hallmark of Islamist militants fighting President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who have previously targeted minority Christians over their perceived support for his government.

It was the second major attack in the Egyptian capital in three days, marking a jarring return to violence after months of relative calm. An Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for an explosion at a security check post on Friday that killed six police officers.

Mr. Sisi’s strongman rule has come under economic pressure in recent months amid high inflation and a sharp drop in the value of the Egyptian pound. Threatened street protests last month did not materialize, but the surging attacks may be an attempt to stoke opposition through violence.

Egyptian security officials, quoted by state media, said that an explosive device containing about 26 pounds of TNT had been placed in the chapel. It went off during Mass around 10 a.m.

Most of the dead and wounded were women and children, Sherief Wadee, an assistant minister for health, said in a television interview. Mr. Sisi declared three days of mourning, state media said.

Hours later, hundreds of angry worshipers gathered at the church gates to register their anger. “We either avenge them or die like them,” they chanted. Tarek Attiya, a police spokesman, denied accusations of lax security at the church, and said the police had been operating a metal detector at the church entrance as normal.

A current of fury and frustration ran through the crowd gathered at the church gates, much of it directed at Mr. Sisi and his supporters and expressed in unusually strong terms.

At one point the crowd broke into chants of “the people demand the downfall of the regime,” the signature call of the mass uprising in 2011 that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The crowd pushed out three prominent television presenters seen as sympathetic to Mr. Sisi — chanting, “Leave! Leave!” — and called for the resignation of the interior minister, Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar.

Many Egyptians reported that TV stations broadcasting pictures of the crowd had cut out audio feeds that carried the anti-government chants.

Such public anger toward the government has become rare under Mr. Sisi, who has imprisoned thousands of opposition figures, cracked down on civil society and demonstrated little tolerance for the mildest street protests.

The blast coincided with a national holiday marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. 

Shrapnel pockmarked religious icons and stone walls inside the church, where witnesses gave graphic accounts of bloodied bodies strewn across the broken pews.

Hundreds of people streamed into nearby hospitals, frantically seeking news of the wounded. Officials said at least six children were among the dead.

Egypt’s beleaguered Coptic minority, which makes up about one-tenth of the country’s roughly 90 million people, has been discriminated against for decades, and has come under violent attack since the uprising that toppled Mr. Mubarak.

The leadership of the Coptic Church, under Pope Tawadros II, has been a vocal supporter of Mr. Sisi, who came to power in 2013. But that support has also made Copts a target for elements of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. 

Islamists attacked hundreds of Coptic churches and homes in 2013, in a backlash after the security forces killed hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in central Cairo in August of that year.

The violence smacks of sectarian prejudice because Mr. Sisi’s support stems from Egypt’s Muslim majority. Tensions between Christians and Muslims are highest in Minya, the province in upper Egypt that saw the worst attacks on Copts in 2013.

Coptic officials in Minya have counted at least 37 attacks in the past three years, including episodes of houses set on fire and Copts being assaulted on the streets.

“Once again the lives of Egypt’s Christian minority are dispensed with as objects within Egypt’s violent and cynical battle over power,” said Timothy E. Kaldas, a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

After the blast on Sunday, dozens of anguished Christians, some wearing black, waited for news of the wounded and the dead outside El Demerdash Hospital.

Noureen Grace, her face streaked with tears, waited for the remains of her sister-in-law, Madeline Michelle. “She was completely destroyed,” Ms. Grace said, describing the trauma of witnessing the mutilated body. “I spoke to her only yesterday. We spoke every day.”

Moments later a red-faced woman, still heaving with grief, walked past. “They are all dead,” she said, declining to give her name. “They were all my friends.”

*Photos courtesy of AFP

_ _ _

Read also:

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Egypt Church Bombing and Warns of More to Come

_ _ _ 

Egyptian-led airstrikes in Libya kill 7 civilians, injure at least 20 others

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Libya/Egypt: Civilian Toll in Derna Air Strikes

Seven Dead, Dozens Injured; Libya and Egypt Need to Investigate

February 24, 2015

At least seven civilians, including three children, died in the joint Egyptian/Libyan airstrikes on the eastern city of Derna on February 16, 2015. Libya and Egypt should conduct speedy and transparent investigations into the deaths.

Indiscriminate attacks that cannot or do not distinguish between military targets and civilians or civilian infrastructure violate the laws of war. Serious violations of the laws of war, carried out with criminal intent, may be war crimes.

Egypt said on February 16 that it had carried out air strikes targeting extremist militants in Derna. This followed the mass killing of 21 Coptic Christians, including 20 Egyptians on February 15 by militants who pledged allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS).

Libya’s army chief of staff issued a statement confirming its coordination with Egypt in conducting the Derna air strikes. Forces loyal to the internationally recognized government, based out of eastern Libya, are engaged in an armed conflict with militant groups, including groups that pledged allegiance to ISIS, in the eastern region.

“Egypt and Libya say they are fighting extremists affiliated with ISIS, but that doesn’t give them a free hand to kill civilians,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “All parties to the conflicts in Libya need to do their utmost to spare civilians and should immediately investigate any civilian casualties.”

Human Rights Watch documented seven civilian deaths that appear to be a result of the airstrikes on Derna, and interviewed families of six of the victims by phone, all killed in their homes in the eastern city’s Al-Shiha neighborhood.

The dead included a mother, Rabiha al-Mansouri, and three of her four children, Afraa, Zakaria, and Huthaifa al-Karshoufi, who died when a missile hit their home. Others were Osama al-Shteiwi, a student who was watching from the roof of his home, who was hit by shrapnel; Attia Bousheiba al-Shaari, who died after the front of his house collapsed on him; and Hanan Faraj al-Drissi, who was on the roof of her home when a missile struck the street in front.

Residents told Human Rights Watch that the air strikes wounded at least 20 other civilians, some of whom were in intensive care at al-Hreish hospital.

Family members interviewed by Human Rights Watch said military plane over-flights and air strikes started at about 5 a.m., and many residents went onto their rooftops to observe them. All of the interviewees said that two missiles struck their neighborhood between 7 and 7:30 a.m. and that none of the homes that were hit were being used to store weapons or ammunition by local militiamen.

The head of Libya’s air force, which operates under the authority of Libya’s internationally recognized government based in eastern Libya, said in an interview that his forces had carried out “air strikes on houses in the city of Derna, which were the headquarters for ground launchers and weapons for the organization Daesh [ISIS],” and that the air strikes killed between 40 and 50 militants. He made no reference to civilian casualties.

Attacks targeting civilians or civilian property, and attacks that do not or cannot discriminate between civilians and fighters, are prohibited under the international laws governing the conduct of armed conflicts.

Attacks that are intended to punish civilians, including family members of a commander or fighter from an opposing faction, constitute collective punishment, which is also unlawful. Attacks that cause extensive and disproportionate destruction of property when carried out unlawfully and wantonly are also prohibited, Human Rights Watch said.

All parties to the conflicts in Libya, which now includes Egypt, are required to abide by the laws of war, which require them to take all feasible steps to protect civilians. Attacking parties are required by international law to take into account the risk to civilians that an attack would pose even if opposing forces are present and have situated military targets within or near populated areas.

Certain serious violations of the laws of war, when committed with criminal intent, are war crimes. Those who commit, order, assist, or have command responsibility for war crimes are subject to prosecution by domestic courts or the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in Libya since February 15, 2011, under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970.

ICC investigations in Libya remain limited to cases from 2011 involving officials of the former Gaddafi government. Despite ongoing serious crimes that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity in Libya, the prosecutor of the ICC has not brought any additional cases and has not announced any new investigations. The prosecutor should examine reports of serious ongoing crimes in Libya, with a view to determining whether further investigations are warranted.

The UN Human Rights Council should establish an investigative mechanism or appoint a special rapporteur on Libya to investigate all serious and widespread human rights violations in Libya, which may constitute possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the view to ensuring that those responsible for serious crimes are held accountable.

In 2014 the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2174, which threatens those responsible for serious crimes with sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, but the Security Council has yet to implement it effectively. The resolution also reiterated that individuals and groups were bound by an existing arms embargo, as stipulated in Security Council Resolution 1970 (2011.)

“Unless the Security Council acts quickly and decisively to hold those responsible for civilian deaths and injuries accountable and to reinforce the existing arms embargo, there is a risk that the situation will deteriorate further and result in many more civilian deaths,” Whitson said.

ARMED GROUPS

Several armed groups in eastern Libya publicly pledged allegiance to ISIS in November 2014, declared that they had established “Barqa Province,” and conducted public extrajudicial executions and floggings.

At least two other armed groups have claimed affiliation to ISIS in what they refer to as the Tripoli and Fezzan Provinces, respectively western Libya – including the capital, and southern Libya. These armed groups have claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the apparent mass killing of 21 Christian Copts near Sirte, and a January 27, 2015 attack on a luxury hotel in Tripoli that killed nine civilians.

On February 20, armed groups that claim to be affiliated to ISIS committed twin suicide attacks in the eastern town of al-Gubba, 40 kilometers from Derna, killing at least 44 people and injuring dozens more. A statement released by the “Barqa Province of IS” said the attacks were in retaliation for the Derna airstrikes.

The current armed conflicts, which began in May 2014 in eastern Libya and spread to the west two months later, has left the country with two rival governments: an internationally recognized government based in al-Bayda in the east, and a rival, self-proclaimed government in Tripoli that controls much of western Libya.

Both claim to be the legitimate government of all of Libya, but neither has been able to exert control nationally. Meanwhile, Libya’s institutions, particularly its judiciary, are at near-collapse, with courts and prosecutors in most cities no longer functioning because of direct targeting of judges and prosecutors by militants, and general insecurity.
 
EVIDENCE FROM WITNESSES AND FAMILY MEMBERS

Al-Karshoufi Family

Human Rights Watch spoke by phone with two members of the al-Kharshoufi family on February 18 and February 20, 2015. They said a rocket struck the family home on the morning of February 16, immediately killing Rabiha al-Mansouri and three of her four children – ages 2, 6, and 7. Al-Mansouri’s husband and their 8-year-old son survived. One relative told Human Rights Watch: “The house was nearly destroyed after one of the missiles landed straight on it at around 7 a.m. It’s a big four-story family home, and the ceiling, which is very heavy, landed where the mother and her four children were staying.”

Another relative told Human Rights Watch that the bombing almost totally destroyed 16 other houses in the same neighborhood and caused some damage to another 32 homes.

Al-Shteiwi Family

A brother of Osama al-Shteiwi, who spoke to Human Rights Watch by phone on February 20, said he saw Osama killed instantly when shrapnel hit his head as he was on the roof of their home trying to film the air strikes, which had begun at about 5a.m. He said Osama had returned to Libya from Turkey, where he was an engineering student, on February 2, when his scholarship funds ran out.

“My brother and I had been up since the early morning when we first heard over-flights of military airplanes and air strikes in the distance,” the brother said. “Just seconds before the missiles landed on our house, I shouted to my brother to come back indoors, but it was too late. Shrapnel hit him on the head and severed it from his body. He died instantly.”

Osama’s brother said he had not heard any anti-aircraft weapons fired from their neighborhood although “there was a lot of shooting that day, from all over the city,” including small arms fire from their neighborhood.

Human Rights Watch saw a copy of Osama’s burial certificate, which stated the cause of death and listed the injuries he had sustained.

Al-Shaari Family

The son of Attia Bousheiba al-Shaari, who was at the family home the day of the air strike, told Human Rights Watch in a call on February 20 that his father was in front of their house to warm up the car sometime between 7 and 7:30 a.m., waiting for one of his daughters, when a missile struck in front of the home.

“We had been hearing air strikes since the early morning in the city and we heard them coming closer, but our home is in a residential area, we never expected anything like this to happen,” the son said.

“I cannot begin to describe what it felt like when the missile struck. I ran out immediately after and saw that the front of our home had just fallen off. I then saw that my father was lying on the ground next to his car. He had injuries on his face and I specifically remember blood running out of his ear. I brought him to the hospital, but it was too late, he’d died immediately.”

The son said that he had not heard any shooting from their street before the air strike: “Our neighborhood is neutral. I do not know of anyone who stores weapons or ammunition. I find it very strange that our street was targeted specifically.”

Human Rights Watch was unable to contact family members of the other victim, Hanan al-Drissi, but spoke by phone to three of her neighbors, who said she died instantly when a rocket hit her home. One neighbor said that al-Drissi was on the roof at the time, and that one of her sisters, also at the house, was critically injured.

Armed Islamist group beheads 21 Egyptian Christians in video

BBC NEWS
Islamic State: Egyptian Christians held in Libya 'killed'

15 February 2015 

A video has emerged apparently showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians who had been kidnapped by Islamic State (IS) militants in Libya.

The footage shows a group wearing orange overalls being forced to the ground and then decapitated.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said Egypt reserves the right to respond in any way it sees fit.

The five-minute video shows hostages in orange jumpsuits being marched along a beach, each accompanied by a masked militant. The men are made to kneel before they are simultaneously beheaded.

Most were from a poor village in Upper Egypt where some relatives fainted on hearing the news. A caption accompanying the video made it clear the hostages were targeted because of their faith.

It referred to the victims as "people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church."

There's speculation here that Egypt may now consider airstrikes across the border. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said in the past that militants in Libya are a danger not just to Egypt, but also to the Middle East

IS militants claim to have carried out several attacks in Libya, which is in effect without a government.

However, with many armed groups operating in Libya, it is not clear how much power IS actually wields.


NATIONAL MOURNING

The kidnapped Egyptian workers, all Coptic Christians, were seized in December and January from the coastal town of Sirte in eastern Libya, now under the control of Islamist groups.

The video of the beheadings was posted online by Libyan jihadists who pledge loyalty to IS. A caption made it clear the men were targeted because of their faith.

"Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals," President Sisi said.

The beheadings were described as "barbaric" by al-Azhar, the highly regarded theological institution which is based in Egypt.

The Coptic church said it was "confident" Egypt would exact retribution. Egypt has declared seven days of national mourning.

Libya has been in turmoil since 2011 and the overthrow of its then-leader, Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Since then, numerous other militia groups have battled for control.

The head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency warned last month that IS was assembling "a growing international footprint that includes ungoverned and under-governed areas", including Libya.

RIVAL GOVERNMENTS
 
Libya has two rival governments, one based in Tripoli, the other in Tobruk. Meanwhile, the eastern city of Benghazi, headquarters of the 2011 revolution, is largely in the hands of Islamist fighters, some with links to al-Qaeda.

On Sunday, Italy closed its embassy in Tripoli. Italy, the former colonial power, lies less than 500 miles (750km) from Libya at the shortest sea crossing point.

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi has been calling for the UN to intervene in Libya. Thousands of migrants use the Libyan coast as a starting point to flee the violence and attempt to reach the EU.
UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond condemned the beheadings.

"Such barbaric acts strengthen our determination to work with our partners to counter the expanding terrorist threat to Libya and the region," he said.

On Sunday, President Sisi banned all travel to Libya by Egyptian citizens.

Despite the turmoil in Libya, thousands of Egyptians go to the country looking for work.

There had been demonstrations in Egypt calling on the government to do more to secure the release of those held.


*Photo-still from video, courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Journalist sentenced to 5 yrs in prison for reporting on sectarianism

Mada Masr 
Coptic journalist sent to jail for reporting on sectarian violence

Monday June 23, 2014

Journalist Mohamed Hegazy was sentenced to five years in prison by the Minya Misdemeanor Court on Monday, reported the state-owned news site Al-Ahram Gate.

Hegazy, a correspondent for the US-based Coptic channel Al-Tareq, was arrested in Minya while reporting on sectarian violence there in December 2013.

His camera and flash drives were confiscated, and he was accused of spreading fabricated news and inciting sectarian strife by falsely reporting that Copts face religious discrimination in Egypt.

Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher on religious freedoms at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Mada Masr that Hegazy — who changed his name to Bishoy Armia after converting to Christianity three years ago — was filming Coptic families whose homes were burned down in Minya’s Bany Obiad village at the time of his arrest.

“But instead of arresting the perpetrators of the violence, they arrested Hegazy — the police knew about the story of his conversion,” Ibrahim asserted.

The reporter had filed a suit with the Administrative Court to change the religious affiliation on his national ID card after he and his wife converted, but the case was thrown out. Egyptians wishing to legally register their religious conversion — particularly those who have converted to Christianity or Baha’i — face several bureaucratic obstacles to doing so.

Since the failed court case, Hegazy was repeatedly harassed by security forces, impelling him to move across the country several times over the past year, according to Ibrahim.

The journalist’s lawyer has said that Hegazy was also harassed by police and other inmates during his detention, Ibrahim added.

Minya court confirms another 183 death sentences

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Egypt: 183 Death Sentences Confirmed in Minya

 

Case Makes Mockery of Right to Fair Trial

(Beirut) – An Egyptian court in Minya on June 21, 2014, confirmed 183 of the 683 provisional death sentences imposed after a lightning trial that severely violated the defendants’ due process rights. The authorities should ensure that all the defendants have a prompt retrial in accordance with international fair trial standards.

Judge Said Youssef confirmed the 183 death sentences, including for Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide, Mohamed al-Badie, in connection with a mid-August 2013 attack on the Adwa police station in the central Egyptian governorate of Minya that left two policemen dead.

On April 28, 2014, Judge Youssef had recommended the death penalty for 683 defendants. These provisional sentences were reviewed by Egypt’s Mufti, the country’s preeminent interpreter of Islamic law, whose advice to judges is nonbinding and confidential.

The court commuted four of the other provisional death sentences to lengthy prison terms, including two women and one man given life sentences and one man sentenced to 15 years in prison in addition to receiving a death sentence, and acquitted 496 others, a human rights activist who attended the June 21 session told Human Rights Watch.

“Condemning 183 rather than 683 people to die after a cursory and one-sided trial is still a travesty of justice,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “The punishments are deadly serious, but the trials weren’t.”

Only 74 defendants were present for the Adwa trial’s single hearing on March 25. None were present for the sentencing on April 28 and June 21. The charges included murder, the attempted murder of five people, including a local Christian man, threatening public order, and burning the Adwa police station.

Defense lawyers had boycotted the trial after the same judge condemned 529 people to death for an August 2013 attack on the Matay police station, also in Minya, following a similarly brief trial on nearly identical charges. On April 28, Judge Youssef confirmed 37 of those 529 death sentences and sentenced the other defendants to life in prison.

Attacks on the two police stations in Minya took place in August 2013 amid riots following security forces’ lethal dispersal of two large Cairo sit-ins.

Under Egyptian judicial procedure, the country's general prosecutor automatically appeals death sentences to the Court of Cassation, which can order a retrial. Defendants may also appeal to the court for a retrial. If the retrial results in a similar verdict, the defense may again ask the Court of Cassation to grant a retrial.

The original trial was in clear violation of Egyptian and international law, Human Rights Watch said. Article 96 of Egypt’s constitution holds that all those accused of a crime are “presumed innocent until proven guilty in a fair legal trial in which the right to defend oneself is guaranteed.”

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Egypt is a state party, limits the circumstances in which a state can impose the death sentence. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that interprets the ICCPR, has said that “in cases of trials leading to the imposition of the death penalty, scrupulous respect of the guarantees of fair trial is particularly important.”

The Minya verdicts followed a spate of death-penalty rulings for fatal violence sparked by security forces’ use of lethal force in August 2013 to disperse the Cairo sit-ins. On June 19, a Giza criminal court headed by Judge Mohamed Nagi Shahata recommended the death penalty for 14 senior Islamist politicians, including al-Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide, on charges including inciting murder in connection with fatal violence outside Giza's Al-Istiqama Mosque.

The previous day, a Giza criminal court headed by Judge Moataz Khafagi recommended the death penalty for 12 men convicted of ambushing and killing police Gen. Nabil Farrag in the Giza village of Kirdasa, also in the wake of the lethal dispersal of the Cairo sit-ins.

Those 12 men and 11 others also faced charges of, among other things, attacking soldiers, police, Christians, places of worship, and public facilities. Egypt's Mufti will review the provisional sentences in both cases.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently cruel and inhumane punishment.

“By confirming death sentences after blatantly unfair trials, the Minya court is undermining the basic rights that Egypt's new constitution seeks to protect,” Stork said. “The right to a fair trial is absolute, regardless of the circumstances, and is all the more vital where lives are at stake.”

Government announces campaign to combat atheism

Mada Masr

Govt announces campaign to save youth from atheism

Thursday June 19, 2014

The newly formed Cabinet is planning a campaign to combat atheism, according to an official statement released Wednesday.

Neamat Saty, the Youth Ministry’s director of civic education, would work with Ahmed Turky, the head of the Endowment Ministry’s mosques management unit, and a team of psychiatrists to form a national strategy to eradicate atheism.

Although Article 64 of Egypt's recently passed Constitution stipulates that "freedom of religion is absolute,” the ministries plan on “confronting and abolishing [atheism] through religious, educational and psychological means handled by experts in these fields,” according to a report published by the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

The plan is part of a Cabinet-wide effort to “confront all issues that negatively affect [youth] and hinder the steps of development towards the future.”

Turky told Mada Masr in a phone interview that there is a protocol between the two ministries to address various intellectual “threats” facing the country’s youth.

“Previously, we launched a similar campaign against religious extremism where we targeted 200,000 youth whom we saw to be most vulnerable to such ideas, especially in Sinai,” Turky said.

He added that the two ministries are now hoping to combat certain “intellectual pests” that target Egyptian youth, like atheism, asserting that the scope of atheism’s reach in Egypt is still being determined by a joint research committee.

“We are taking preventive and preemptive measures. We do not want to see atheism being endemic in Egypt,” the official explained.

Turky pointed to the ongoing standoff between politics and religion, and arguments concerning how those two realms should ideally interact, as direct causes for an upsurge in both religious extremism and atheism.

“The ongoing conflict will lead youth to either be religious extremists or push them more toward profanity and atheism,” Turky claimed.

But some say it’s problematic for state institutions to get involved in such matters.

Amr Ezzat, a researcher on religious freedoms at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told Mada Masr that state bodies are meant to serve all citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs, and it’s extremely dangerous for them to launch campaigns against certain religious views.

“If we are talking about a modern civil state, the existence of a ministry that runs the affairs of Islam in the first place [the Endowments Ministry] is problematic in itself,” Ezzat argued.

Initiatives like the one announced on Wednesday "do not simply campaign against atheism, but they call for violating the rights of those citizens who hold such beliefs in the first place, which is considered mere incitement. These initiatives propagate that atheists threaten the national unity of the society, while the existence of such religious institutions at the first place is the threat,” he continued.

Belying Ezzat’s concerns are actions like the one taken in March by a Ministry of Interior official in Alexandria, who declared that a special police task force would be formed to arrest a group of atheists residing in the coastal city who were open about their beliefs on Facebook.

In a phone interview with presenter Mohamed Moussa on his television show Redline, aired on the Honest satellite channel, Alexandria Security Directorate chief Amin Ezz al-Din said that the task force would be spearheaded by police officers with expertise in such "crimes,” and that they would legalize arrest procedures against these controversial activists.

The ministries’ campaign echoes recent attacks on atheism in local media, a discourse that is particularly prevalent on private satellite channels. In the same episode in which he interviewed Ezz al-Din, Moussa called for the arrest and execution of an atheist he had hosted on his show as punishment for his beliefs.

In another high-profile incident, a television host on the popular Sabaya program, aired on Al-Nahar satellite channel, kicked her guest off the show live on air for expressing her anti-Islamic views.

On a similar note, the EIPR issued a statement Thursday condemning the 6-month prison sentence levied against a Coptic teacher in the southern governorate of Luxor. The teacher was found guilty of religious blasphemy and defaming Islam.

According to EIPR, this is Luxor’s third court case against religious blasphemy, with each case being brought against religious minorities and those holding religious beliefs contradicting with the Sunni Muslim majority.

In its statement, EIPR cautioned that "freedom of opinion and expression is imperiled by individuals and institutions that seek to impose moral guardianship on the citizenry, in a climate hostile to liberties and supported by the governing authority."

The legal persecution of religious minorities is not unique to the newly sworn-in government. Former President Mohamed Morsi’s yearlong administration was broadly criticized for its perceived crackdown on religious freedoms, as well as a wave of lawsuits against political dissidents and religious minorities accusing them of insulting Islam.

Activist Alber Saber was sentenced to three years in prison by a misdemeanor court in January 2013 for insulting religion after he published a video on his Facebook page promoting atheism

Egyptian Christians scapegoated after dispersal of pro-Morsi sit-ins

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Egypt: Christians scapegoated after dispersal of pro-Morsi sit-ins

9 October 2013 

 

A detailed report into the attacks targeting Coptic Christian communities in August reveals the extent of the failure of the security services to protect the minority group, said Amnesty International.

The new report published today examines events during the unprecedented wave of sectarian attacks in the wake of the dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo on 14 August.

It details how security forces failed to prevent angry mobs attacks on Christian churches, schools and charity buildings, setting them ablaze and razing some to the ground. At least four people were killed.

“It is deeply disturbing that the Christian community across Egypt was singled out for revenge attacks over the events in Cairo by some supporters of the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“In light of previous attacks, particularly since Morsi’s outsing on 3 July, a backlash against Coptic Christians should have been anticipated, yet security forces failed to prevent attacks or intervene to put an end to the violence.”

Amnesty International urges the Egyptian authorities to conduct an impartial, independent investigation into these sectarian attacks, and to take immediate steps to prevent their recurrence. A comprehensive strategy to fight discrimination against religious minorities must be devised and implemented. Discriminatory laws and policies must be repealed.

“Failure to bring to justice those responsible for sectarian attacks sends the message that Copts and other religious minorities are fair game. The authorities must make it absolutely clear that sectarian attacks will not be tolerated,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

More than 200 Christian-owned properties were attacked and 43 churches were seriously damaged across the country in the aftermath of events on 14 August.

One Coptic Christian from the governorate of Fayoum described his dismay at the violence: “Why is it when there is a problem, Christians always pay the price? What do we have to do with the events in Cairo to be punished like this?”

Amnesty International visited sites of the sectarian violence in Al-Minya, Fayoum and Greater Cairo to gather evidence from eyewitnesses, local officials and religious leaders.

In several instances residents said mobs of angry men armed with firearms, metal bars and knives had ransacked churches and Christian properties. Many chanted slogans such as “God is Great” or used derogatory terms like “you Christian dogs” as they launched their attacks.

Historical and religious relics were desecrated. Graffiti left scrawled upon walls in the aftermath of the attacks included slogans such as “Morsi is my President” and “They killed our brothers during prayer”.

The messages leave little doubt as to the sectarian nature of the attacks and link the events firmly to the crackdown against Morsi supporters in Cairo. Attacks were frequently preceded by incitement from local mosques and religious leaders.

“Given the fact that these attacks were in retaliation for the crackdown on pro-Morsi sit-ins, the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood said too little too late, and laid the blame on ‘thugs’ distancing their supporters from the attacks” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. “They must condemn their supporters’ actions and urge them to refrain from sectarian attacks and the use of sectarian language.”

In Al-Minya, where most of the attacks occurred, a journalist, Zeinab Ismail, who witnessed scenes of violence, said attackers were armed with machetes and swords.

Some residents were attacked in their homes. The body of a 60-year-old Coptic Christian man shot dead at home in the village of Delga in Al-Minya, was later dragged through the streets by a tractor. After he was buried his grave was dug up twice.

“Any investigation must also examine the role of the security forces. Some incidents lasted for hours and recurred in subsequent days,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. “Why were the security forces unable to prevent and put an end to such attacks?”

There is a long history of abuse and discrimination against Coptic Christians in Egypt. A litany of attacks occurred under Hosni Mubarak, military rule and Mohamed Morsi.

The release of Amnesty International’s new briefing coincides with the second anniversary of a bloody crackdown by the armed forces on protesters, outside the state television building known as Maspero in Cairo on 9 October 2011, in which 26 Coptic Christians protesters and a Muslim were killed.

Impunity for these attacks is entrenched. For Maspero, only three low-ranking soldiers were sentenced to prison terms between two and three years for manslaughter.

‘Reconciliation sessions’ – the favoured method by authorities to resolve sectarian disputes in Egypt – have so far only consolidated the feelings of injustice among minority communities and allowed perpetrators to walk free. Proper mechanisms to protect religious minorities and safeguard their rights must instead be introduced.

“For too long the Christians of Egypt have borne the brunt of sectarian violence. This pattern of inaction by the authorities must change,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

“Words of condemnation must be backed up by concrete steps to provide adequate protection to religious minorities. The state must ensure full reparation, including financial compensation, to the victims of sectarian attacks. 

The rebuilding of places of worship must be also be prioritized and legal obstacles to building churches immediately repealed. Without such concrete measures, Coptic Christians, once again, would just have been used as an excuse to settle political scores.”

Background

Successive governments have failed to address discrimination and targeting of religious minorities in Egypt. Under Hosni Mubarak at least 15 major attacks against Copts were documented. Following the fall of Mubarak, under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, deadly sectarian clashes continued to take place. The situation also failed to improve under Mohamed Morsi, attacks against Copts continued and anti-Christian rhetoric was stepped up. Christian communities have for decades faced legal and bureaucratic hurdles to build and restore places of worship.


*Photo by VIRGINIE NGUYEN HOANG courtesy of AFP/Getty Images

Counter-revolutionary junta extends state-of-emergency by another 2 months

Agence France Presse
Egypt extends state of emergency by two months
September 12, 2013 CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt's interim authorities on Thursday extended a state of emergency in force since mid-August by another two months because of the country's continued insecurity. President Adly Mansour had initially announced a month-long state of emergency on August 14, at a time when deadly unrest swept Egypt as police dispersed two Islamist protest camps. "President Adly Mansour decided to extend the state of emergency...by two months," presidential spokesman Ehab Bedawy said in a statement. The decision was taken in light of "developments and the security situation in the country," he said. More than 1,000 people were killed on August 14 and following days after police dispersed two sit-ins in Cairo by ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's supporters. Islamists at the time lashed out at Christians, accused of supporting the military coup which ousted Morsi, and burned down several dozen churches and Coptic Christian-owned properties. Violent protests have largely subsided, giving way to militant attacks such as a suspected suicide bombing that targeted the interior minister last week in a failed assassination bid. The state of emergency grants security forces wide-ranging powers of arrest. According to a temporary charter adopted by Mansour, the state of emergency can be extended after the three-month period only by referendum. Barring a months-long interval in the early 1980s and its suspension months after president Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in early 2011, Egypt has been under continuous state of emergency ever since 1967. In a newspaper interview on Wednesday, interim prime minister Hazem al-Beblawi had said the state of emergency would likely be extended by two months. "I don't think any reasonable person aware of the situation, which keeps getting worse, would want the state of emergency lifted," Beblawi said. He did not indicate when the government would lift a nighttime curfew also imposed on August 14, since when the government has shortened it by four hours. With much of its senior leadership arrested, Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement has lost its ability to rally huge crowds to protest for his reinstatement. But the Islamists still organise weekly rallies. Meanwhile, attacks on security forces have spiked, even as the military conducts its largest operation in years to quell a radical Islamist insurgency in northern Sinai. One militant group in the peninsula, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, took responsibility for the failed assassination attempt against interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim and pledged to try again. It also vowed to target Colonel General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who overthrew Morsi in July and installed Mansour as president.

Egypt: Mass attacks on churches & Christian sites

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Egypt: Mass Attacks on Churches

Christians Say Pleas for Protection Fell Largely on Deaf Ears

August 22, 2013

 

 

(New York) – Egyptian authorities should take the necessary steps to protect churches and religious institutions against mob attacks, Human Rights Watch said today. Since August 14, 2013, attackers have torched and looted scores of churches and Christian property across the country, leaving at least four people dead. Authorities should also investigate why security forces were largely absent or failed to intervene even when they had been informed of ongoing attacks.

Immediately following the violent dispersal of the Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo on August 14, crowds of men attacked at least 42 churches, burning or damaging 37, as well as dozens of other Christian religious institutions in the governorates of Minya, Asyut, Fayum, Giza, Suez, Sohag, Bani Suef, and North Sinai. Human Rights Watch has verified with family members and a lawyer that at least three Coptic Christians and one Muslim were killed as a result of sectarian attacks in Dalga, Minya city, and Cairo.

“For weeks, everyone could see these attacks coming, with Muslim Brotherhood members accusing Coptic Christians of a role in Mohammad Morsy’s ouster, but the authorities did little or nothing to prevent them,” said Joe Stork, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Now dozens of churches are smoldering ruins, and Christians throughout the country are hiding in their homes, afraid for their very lives.”

 

Human Rights Watch spoke with 43 witnesses, priests, and Coptic activists, who confirmed the attacks on 42 churches, dozens of Christian institutions and schools, and Coptic-owned business and homes. Human Rights Watch visited 11 sites in Minya city and Bani Suef, where attacks took place, and spoke to the head of the security directorate for Minya governorate.

In the vast majority of the 42 cases Human Rights Watch documented, neither the police nor the military were present at the start or during the attack. In one case, in Dalga, a village in southern Minya governorate, residents said that men had attacked the local police station around the same time. In Kirdassa, Giza, west of Cairo, an activist said that mobs attacked the local police station, killing15 officers according to the Associated Press, before attacking Al-Mallak church. A priest in Malawi, a town in Minya governorate south of Minya city, told Human Rights Watch that he called emergency services and police multiple times while mobs burned his church, but no one came. Another Dalga resident said that on August 16 the governor promised to send armored personnel carriers to protect Copts from ongoing violence, but that none came.

“We [church officials] spoke to the prime minister, minister of interior, and a military official asking them to intervene,” Coptic Bishop General of Minya Anba Makarios told Human Rights Watch on August 19. He said the officials promised to send protection, but it never arrived.

In Hadeyeq Helwan, 30 kilometers south of Cairo, a resident told Human Rights Watch that one armored personnel carrier finally arrived on the afternoon of August 17, a day after the St. George Church there came under attack.

Residents in Minya city told Human Rights Watch that in the week following Morsy’s removal from the presidency on July 3, someone had spray-painted Coptic-owned store fronts in Minya’s city center with a black “X” to distinguish them from Muslim-owned buildings. Those marked subsequently came under attack.

The attacks come after weeks of sectarian discourse by Muslim Brotherhood supporters at the Nahda and Rab’a al-Adawiya sit-ins in which speakers claimed or insinuated a link between Copts and Morsy’s removal. One speaker, Assem Abdel Magid, said on July 24,“Copts and communists are supporting Sisi in the killing of Muslims.” A YouTube video of a pro-Morsy march on July 12 shows marchers chanting “Islamic Islamic despite the Christians” while passing a church.

Some Muslim Brotherhood leaders have condemned the recent sectarian attacks. On August 16, Dr. Mourad Ali, spokesman of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, released a statement that said, “Pursuant to our party’s indivisible principles, we strongly condemn any attack, even verbal, against Copts, their churches or their property.”

Others however have suggested a Coptic role in the ongoing crackdown on the group. On the afternoon of August 14, the Freedom and Justice Party Helwan Branch posted a statement on the group’s Facebook page accusing Pope Tawadros, the religious leader of the Egyptian Coptic community,of participating in Morsy’s removal and of inciting Copts to block roads, encircle mosques, and storm them. The message ended with, “For every action there is a reaction.” On August 16, the Muslim Brotherhood website published a story with the headline,“The police and the church open fire on the al-Haram march at Giza tunnel and Murad Street.” Several residents and clergy in areas where church attacks occurred said that local religious leaders incited groups to attack churches.

Sectarian attacks against Christians had increased even before the August 14 action against the camps. On July 5, following Morsy’s ouster on July 3, four Copts were killed in Luxor governorate. On July 23, Human Rights Watch called on the Egyptian authorities to take steps to protect Christians, investigate attacks, and hold those responsible to account.

“While a few Muslim Brotherhood leaders have condemned these attacks, they also need to tell the group’s followers to stop inciting violence by insinuating that the Coptic minority is responsible for the crackdown,” Stork said.

 

Sectarian Attacks Since August 14
Most of the attacks occurred in Upper Egypt. John Sameer, 21, a resident of Minya city, 250 kilometers south of Cairo, told Human Rights Watch that at 10 a.m. on August 14, he saw crowds of thousands of men on trucks and on foot approaching his neighborhood chanting anti-Christian slogans directly aimed at the Egyptian Coptic community. “Tawadros, you are a coward for the Americans” and “Tawadros, you coward, get your dogs out of the square,” he said they chanted, referring to the head of the church and the participation of Christians in June 30 protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square calling for Morsy’s removal from power.

Sameer said that the crowd attacked the al-Amir Tadros Coptic Church that afternoon, breaking in and taking the church safe, then setting the building ablaze. Sameer, who went to the scene to observe, said that men around the church were carrying Molotov cocktails and that at least five had assault rifles, but they did not attack him. Sameer followed the men as they attacked and burned approximately 20 shops, three other churches, the Coptic boys’ school complex, the Saint Joseph’s girls’ school, the Gunud al-Maseeh orphanage, and the Jesuit community center. Sameer said that security forces were absent throughout the incident, and emergency vehicles and firefighters did not come to extinguish the fires despite calls for help.

Philimon Sameer, John’s brother, 24, told Human Rights Watch that he approached al-Amir Tadros Coptic Church at around 3 p.m. to try to save it, but that four bearded men threw rocks at him and other Copts trying to extinguish the fire. He said no police or security services came to stop the attack, despite the fact that the church is 20 meters from the Minya governorate’s security directorate. He said he saw several Christian institutions and Christian-owned businesses in the area looted and burning, including the al-Anba Arsanious Hall church building, the Roxy supermarket, the Rozina Café, and the YMCA building. No one was injured in these attacks, he said.

Father Bernaba at the Mar Meena Coptic Church in Minya city told Human Rights Watch that a large crowd attacked his church on the afternoon of August 14, setting fire to the church clinic and services building, and damaging the front exterior of the church itself. He said that security forces and police did not come to stop the attack. At midnight, however, when attackers returned, security forces dispatched an armored personnel carrier. It deterred the attackers, who moved away from the church.

Wissam Mamduh, 19, a resident of Sohag city, 450 kilometers south of Cairo, told Human Rights Watch that at 9 a.m. on August 14, he observed a group of approximately 150 men march from a sit-in at Thaqafa square toward the St. George Coptic Church nearby, chanting “Islamic Islamic,” a common chant by proponents of an Islamic state. After storming and looting the church, the men set it on fire. He said that the men also attacked and burned dozens of Coptic-owned businesses and homes in the area. The security services did not arrive for another two hours, after everything was on fire, he said.

In Dalga, a village in southern Minya governorate, three witnesses told Human Rights Watch that mobs attacked churches and Coptic homes as soon as the news of the Cairo sit-in dispersal reached residents of the town. Gamil Nagih, 21, said that at 7:45 a.m. he heard the imam of a nearby mosque announce over the mosque loudspeakers, “Go help your brothers in Rab’a.” At 9 a.m. he said, he saw thousands of men gathering outside Saints Mary and Ibram church. The men broke the through doors while shouting “Islamic, Islamic,” he said. The attackers then looted the church and set it on fire. The attackers also torched 20 Coptic homes and looted and burned Coptic-owned shops in the area, he said.

Human Rights Watch visited the remains of the Franciscan girl’s school and church in Bani Suef, 125 kilometers south of Cairo, which a mob attacked and burned on August 14. Father Boulos Fahmy, a Catholic priest affiliated with the school, said that at around 9 a.m. the nuns, who were alone at the school, contacted him by phone telling him that a mob was threatening the school. He notified the police, who sent a car to deter the attackers but it departed less than an hour later after a nearby police station came under attack, he said. The men returned soon after, looting and setting fire to the school and church. The men forced three nuns to leave the school and walked them through nearby streets, verbally abusing them. Local Muslim residents rescued the nuns from the mob and escorted them away to safety.

Deaths
Another Dalga resident, Sameer Lamie, 31, told Human Rights Watch that a crowd of men gathered outside his home before 9 a.m. A group of armed men eventually broke down his door and entered his house. He said the men shot his cousin Iskandar Doss twice, while Lamie, his mother, and Doss’s wife and daughter-in-law escaped by climbing to the roof. Lamie said the attackers fired birdshot at him, hitting him in his side with 13 pellets, and they hit his mother with a pellet under her eye. Lamie said he learned later that Doss died of his wounds. He said that no security forces or police arrived during the attack.

In Minya city, residents, family members, and the Christian owner of the Mermaid boat restaurant, along the Minya city corniche, told Human Rights Watch that two Mermaid employees – Bishoy Mikhail, a Copt, and Ihab Ali Ahmed, a Muslim – died while hiding in the bathroom of the boat after a mob set it on fire. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the boat on August 19 and viewed the charred remains of shoes, pants, and a mobile phone on the floor of the bathroom.

An employee of a neighboring boat restaurant, Al-Dahabiya, told Human Rights Watch that at 11 a.m. he heard a commotion at the Mermaid boat. He said: “I called the administration and told them, and at 11:15 a.m. I saw flames coming out of the boat, and then a group of 70 people approached and said they would burn the [Dahabiya] boat too.” When he asked them for a safe exit, they told him to jump into the Nile with his staff and swim away. When he responded that some staff could not swim, the men allowed him and the staff to leave unharmed from the front entrance. He said the men then torched the Dahabiya boat restaurant.

A Coptic shop owner in the Cairo neighborhood of Ezbet al-Nakhl died from gunshot wounds after a group of men attacked his shop, next to the Abu Siffin church, activists from the Maspero Youth Union told Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch could not confirm the man’s death with family members.

In spite of the four deaths, most residents with whom Human Rights Watch spoke in Minya city said that attackers targeted buildings instead of people.

Attacks on Police and Police Response
Church clergy throughout Upper Egypt expressed frustration and desperation that security services did not quickly intervene to stop the widespread attacks. The pastor of the al-Mashyakhiya Evangelical Church in Malawi, a village in Minya governorate, told Human Rights Watch that he watched as attackers looted and burned his church on the afternoon of August 16. He said:
At 5:30 p.m., around 200 people came and started shooting at the church, they entered and looted the halls, the church, a seven-story building, and set it all ablaze. They took everything, all the equipment, furniture, everything. I called the police and army on their hotlines ... no one came, the church is gone…
Bishop Makarios told Human Rights Watch that authorities failed to protect churches despite repeated warnings, and that on August 19, five days after the attacks, police still had not returned to the streets in adequate numbers since the morning August 14.

Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Human Rights Watch that a group of men attacked a police station in Kirdassa, Giza, before moving on to loot and burn al-Mallak church. The Associated Press, which interviewed the sole police officer who survived the attack, reported that the mob killed 15 officers and then mutilated their bodies. A YouTube video purportedly filmed after the attack shows a group of officers lying on the ground in pools of blood.

Maj. Gen. Abdelaziz Qura, head of the Minya security directorate, told Human Rights Watch that on August 14, when news of the sit-in dispersal reach Minya, “groups simultaneously attacked police stations and some churches in Minya. They were shooting live fire at security forces, and the security forces did not leave their positions because they didn’t want anyone to free the prisoners [held in police stations], like what happened in January 2011.” He said that groups attacked 12 police stations in Minya governorate, six of which they burned to the ground, and that attackers killed 13 police officers and wounded another 30 with live fire. He said that police have arrested 41 men in Minya, some of whom he believes belong to Islamist groups, and that prosecutors have initiated investigations of all church attacks.

Qura confirmed that security forces had not moved to protect Christian-owned buildings and churches since August 14, saying that police could not deploy at full strength without assistance from military armored personnel carriers, but that he expected the security situation to improve by August 21.

According to Reuters, at least 100 members of the security forces have been killed throughout Egypt in attacks on police stations and check points or in clashes with protesters since August 14. The authorities should investigate such violence and ensure criminal accountability, with due judicial process, of those found responsible, Human Rights Watch said.

Incitement to Attack Christian-Owned Buildings and Churches
In addition to Islamist rhetoric relating to support by Copts for Morsy’s removal, residents and priests told Human Rights Watch that local groups and religious leaders also incited groups to target Christians. At least 10 residents in Minya city told Human Rights Watch that in the week following Morsy’s removal, someone spray-painted a black X on Coptic-owned store fronts in Minya’s city center to distinguish them from Muslim-owned buildings.

Human Rights Watch researchers observed these markings on August 19 on many of the damaged businesses. One Christian shop owner in Minya, Alfons Massoud, 70, said that at 3:30 p.m. on August 14 young boys with knives and between 20 and 30 bearded men with guns attacked and burned a neighboring shop bearing the X mark. He said that they torched his shop after seeing that it had a Coptic name.

Bishop Makarios told Human Rights Watch that he heard local mosque preachers inciting sectarian attacks when the sit-in was being dispersed, saying “Islam is in danger, the infidels will eradicate Islam, go defend your brothers in Rab’a.” He noted that approximately 80 churches in the area had received anonymous phone calls warning of impending attacks against them in the week leading up to August 14.

A witness told Human Rights Watch that an imam at a mosque in the Cairo neighborhood of Maasara called over the mosque loudspeakers for the eviction of Coptic residents. Mina Lamie, 29, a neighborhood resident, said that on August 15 he heard the imam say, “The Copts are behind all of this, they participated on June 30 ... we have to burn the churches.” He said that at 11:30 p.m. thousands gathered and began chanting, “The people demand the eviction of the Copts.” No churches in the area were actually attacked, Lamie said.

List of Churches Burned or Damaged Since August 14

1. Al-Amir Tadros Coptic Church
2. Al-Anba Mousa Church 
3. Evangelical Church  
4. Al-Rasuliya Apostolic Church
5. Mar Meena Coptic Church
6. Mar Meena Church 
7. Evangelical Church 
8. Baptist Church
9. Saints Mary and Ibram Coptic Church
10. Al-Mashyakhiya Evangelical Church
11. Good Shepherd Catholic Church and School
12. Mar Yohanna Church  
13. Adventist Church   
14. Al-Rasuliyya Church 
15. Mar Gergas Coptic Church
16. al-Qowsiyya Bishopric and Chruch
17. Evangelical Church  
18. St. Therese Church  
19. Nahdet al-Qadasa church
20. St. George Coptic Church and Diocesan Office
21. St. Mary Church   
22. St. Mary Church   
23. Al-Amir Tadros al-Shatbi Church
24. Al-Shaheeda Damyana Church
25. Evangelical Church   
26. Al-Amir Tadros Church  
27. Al-Mallak Church   
28. St. Mary Church   
29. Karmet al-Rosul Church  
30. St. Mary Church   
31. Al-Younaniyya al-Qadeema Church
32. Good Shepherd Catholic Church and School
33. Saviour’s Anglican Church
34. Franciscan Church and School
35. Mar Gerges Church
36. Mar Gerges Church Services Building
37. Franciscan Catholic Church and School

Churches Attacked, Not Damaged

1. Al-Malak Church  
2. Abu Teeg Bishopric
3. Franciscan Church and School 
4. St. George Hadayeq Church
5. Abu Sifin Church