The death toll in devastating Friday attack on a mosque in Egypt’s North Sinai has risen to 305, including 27 children, MENA state news agency said on Saturday.
The death toll in devastating Friday attack on a mosque in Egypt’s North Sinai has risen to 305, including 27 children, MENA state news agency said on Saturday.
128 more people were injured in the deadliest terror attack in the country that targeted worshippers during Friday prayers.
After a bomb ripped through the mosque, the gunmen on four off-road vehicles opened fire on the worshippers who tried to escape from the site after the explosion.
Hours after the attack, the Egyptian air force gunned down several militants and destroyed their vehicles.
Egypt’s military said on Saturday it had carried out air strikes and raids overnight against militants held responsible for the attack.
No group has claimed responsibility, but Egyptian forces are battling a stubborn Islamic State affiliate in the region, one of the surviving branches of the militant group after it suffered defeats by U.S.-backed forces in Iraq and Syria.
“The air force has over the past few hours eliminated a number of outposts used by terrorist elements,” the army said.
Army spokesperson Tamer el-Refai said in a statement that the air forces launched retaliatory attacks on terror hideouts in the surrounding area of North Sinai, killing militants and destroying vehicles used in the deadly attack.
He said arms and ammunition depots of the militants were also targeted.
Earlier, local media reports quoting sources in the security force said the army launched "immediate and wide" ground and air raids and two drones attacked two vehicles belonging to militants in Al-Resha village near el-Rouda village.
Following the mosque attack, President Abdel Fattah el- Sisi had chaired an emergency meeting with officials to review security situation.
In a statement later, he pledged to respond with "brutal force" against militants.
He had said that the "vile and treacherous" activity would not pass without a decisive punishment.
The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and there is no word yet on what happened to the militants involved. However, it bears the hallmarks of an attack by ISIS, reports said.
There have been regular attacks blamed on militants on the Sinai peninsula since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, but this is the deadliest assault of its kind.
The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.
Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.
The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.
(With agency inputs)
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