Egyptian Christians weep with rage, dig graves after bombing

Tanta(Egypt) – Egyptian Christians wept with rage on
Monday as they recovered the bodies of loved ones killed
in twin church bombings, furious at a state they believe
will no longer protect them from neighbors bent on their
murder.
Crucifixes and icons are seen at the heavily damaged
Church of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh (also
known as Hamdaniya), some 30 kilometres east of
Mosul, on April 9, 2017, as Christians mark the first
Palm Sunday event in the town since Iraqi forces
recaptured it from Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.
Qaraqosh, with an overwhelmingly Christian population of
around 50,000 before the jihadists took over the area in
August 2014, was the largest Christian town in Iraq. /
AFP PHOTO
Forty-four people were killed in the attacks on Palm
Sunday, a joyous festival a week before Easter when
Christians celebrate the triumphant arrival of Jesus in
Jerusalem.
At Tanta University hospital morgue, desperate families
were trying to get inside to search for loved ones.
Security forces held them back to stop overcrowding,
enraging the crowd.
“Why are you preventing us from entering now? Where
were you when all this happened?” shouted one women
looking for a relative.
Some appeared in total shock, their faces pale and
unmoving. Others wept openly as women wailed in
mourning.
A middle-aged man who had just stepped out of the
morgue after seeing his dead brother stood with his face
buried in his hands weeping.
“You sons of bitches,” he shouted as his family tried to
calm him.
Hours after the attack, Kerols Paheg and other young
Coptic Christians were already digging graves in the
basement of the devastated St. George Church in the
northern Nile Delta city, where the first of the bombs
exploded, killing 27 and wounding around 80.
He showed photos on his phone of the carnage: human
remains, blood and shattered glass strewn across the
floor of the church on one of the holiest days in the
Christian calendar.
“Today was supposed to be a day of festivity,” he said.
From now on, Christians will have to protect their
churches themselves, rather than rely on the police,
“because what’s happening is too much. It’s
unacceptable,” he said.
Copts make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s 92 million
people, the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.
Inspite of a presence dating back to the Roman era, the
community feels increasingly ostracized and has
repeatedly been targeted in attacks, including by Islamic
State, which claimed responsibility for Sunday’s
bombings.
Hours after the blast in Tanta, the second bomb blew up
at the entrance to Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria,
the historic seat of the Coptic pope, killing 17 people
including three police officers and wounding 48.
Pope Tawadros had been leading the mass at the time
of the blast but escaped unharmed, the Interior Ministry
said.
Though Islamic State has long waged a low-level war
against soldiers and police in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, its
stepped up assault on Christian civilians in the mainland
could turn a provincial insurgency into wider sectarian
conflict.
On Sunday, the group warned of more attacks and
boasted of the number of people killed by three church
bombings it says it has carried out since December: 80.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has promised to protect
the Christian minority as part of a campaign against
extremism.
Copts in Tanta said security was almost non-existent on
Sunday despite repeated warnings in recent weeks.
A senior police official told Reuters a bomb was
discovered and disabled near the Tanta church about a
week ago.
“That should have been an alarm or a warning that this
place is targeted,” said 38-year-old Amira Maher, who
was waiting for her injured brother at a nearby hospital.
“Especially Palm Sunday, a day when many people
gather, more than any other time in the year… I don’t
know how this happened,” she said.
Milling about the charred church interior, as if trying to
take in the enormity of the attack, several members of
the community expressed dismay at what they said was
lax security.
Tanta priest Tawfik Kobeish expressed perhaps the
most common of all emotions among the grieving:
disbelief.
“We were not expecting people who live with us in the
same country, people with whom we’ve shared love and
friendships, and with whom we’re familiar, to do these
things,” said Kobeish, the sound of ambulances bearing
the wounded echoing outside.(Reuters/NAN)
SH