Egypt mosque attack death toll climbs above 300
(CNN)The
death toll in a bomb and gun attack on a Sufi mosque in northern Sinai
has risen to 305, with 27 children among the dead, Egypt's state
prosecutor said Saturday.
Another
128 people were wounded, according to a statement from the public
prosecutor read out on Egyptian state-run news channel Nile TV.
Between 25 and 30 armed men carried out the assault on the al Rawdah Sufi mosque in Bir al-Abed, the statement said.
The
prosecutor also gave more detail about how the brutal attack unfolded.
The attackers arrived in five SUVs and were armed with automatic machine
guns, the statement said. They took position in front of the mosque and
its entrances.
Survivors
of the incident now at the hospital described massive gunfire and loud
explosions at the start of the attack. A number of attackers, some of
them masked, then entered the mosque, the statement said.
The
attackers had long beards and hair, were wearing military fatigues and
were armed with heavy machine guns, according to the statement. At least
one of those who entered the mosque was carrying an ISIS flag, it said.
There
has not yet been a claim of responsibility from ISIS or its affiliate
in Egypt. However, the attack bears the hallmarks of a strike by ISIS,
which maintains a foothold in the north of the Sinai Peninsula and
inspires local Islamist extremist groups, despite the efforts of
Egyptian security forces.
Victims are seen on the floor of al Rawdah mosque following the gun and bomb attack Friday.
President vows 'brute force'
President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to respond to the massacre -- believed to be
the deadliest terrorist attack on the country's soil -- with "brute
force."
Egyptian warplanes conducted airstrikes on "terrorist outposts" and vehicles following the attack, the military said Saturday.
"The
Egyptian Air Force pursued the terrorist elements, discovered and
destroyed a number of vehicles that carried out the brutal terrorist
killings, and killed all terrorists inside those vehicles," military
spokesman Tamer Rifai said in a statement Saturday.
It also targeted a number of terrorist outposts containing weapons, ammunition and radical elements, Rifai said.
A teenage survivor of the attack is treated Friday at a hospital in Ismailia.
Al
Rawdah mosque is known as the birthplace of an important Sufi cleric.
Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam that some jihadists consider
heretical.
Witnesses told CNN that
the attack started when an explosive device went off in a building
adjacent to the mosque and that gunmen fired at worshippers as they
fled. Gunmen then entered the mosque and fired at those inside, they
said.
The attackers had also set up
"ambush" locations and opened fire on ambulances as they transported
the wounded to al-Arish before the arrival of security services,
according to witnesses.
Photos from inside the mosque showed what appeared to be bodies lined up in rows on the carpet.
'No one got out of the mosque'
One
survivor, who asked that his name not be used, told CNN on Saturday
that he still had shrapnel in an eye that was covered by a bandage.
Sitting with tribesmen outside a hospital emergency room, he said he
believes he survived because he was covered by the bodies of other
victims as the attackers went around the mosque to ensure everyone was
dead.
"No
one got out of the mosque," said another witness at a nearby hospital.
The man, who also declined to be identified out of fear of retaliation,
said his father and eight other family members, including a brother and
nephew, were killed.
The man said
soldiers from a nearby military unit must have heard the gunfire during
the attack but did not immediately respond.
"Even the ambulances came under fire." he said.
A
man nearby nodded in agreement. Moments later, hospital volunteers
alerted a military officer protecting the hospital -- who asked
reporters to leave.
Another man
told CNN he drove one of the first ambulances to the scene but turned
around after shots were fired at the vehicle. Ambulances from al-Arish
managed to reach the mosque only after security forces secured the road,
he said.
The attackers used
automatic weapons, said Diaa Rashwan, the chairman of the state
information service. Some victims were also killed by the explosions.
National mourning declared
In a short, televised speech after meeting with security officials, Sisi said the government would hunt down the attackers.
"We
will respond to this act with brute force against these terrorists," he
said. "This terrorist act will strengthen our resolve, steadfastness
and will to stand up to, resist and battle against terrorism."
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, center, meets with officials in Cairo after the mosque attack.
Three
days of national mourning have been declared. Sisi has also ordered the
armed forces to build a memorial to those killed at the mosque, a
statement on his official Facebook page said.
The grand imam of Al-Azhar, the premier religious authority in Egypt, condemned the "barbaric attack" on the mosque.
"The
shedding of blood, the violation of the sacred houses of God and the
terrorizing of worshippers are acts of corruption on the earth," Ahmed
El-Tayyeb said.
The targeting of mosques followed an attack on churches, El-Tayyeb said, adding that Egyptians would prevail over terrorism with solidarity and determination.
People gather at the site of the mosque attack on Friday.
Northern Sinai unrest
Friday's
attack prompted wide international condemnation, with US President
Donald Trump among the leaders expressing condolences and vowing to
continue the fight against terrorism.
Sisi expressed concern recently that ISIS militants fleeing Iraq and Syria would come to Egypt.
Egyptian security forces face almost daily attacks from militants with ISIS ties in northern Sinai.
The
Wilayat Sinai group, which pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014, has been
behind numerous attacks and hundreds of deaths in the desert region.
It claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Russian passenger jet that crashed in October 2015 in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people.
Relatives of the victims of the mosque attack sit outside a hospital Saturday in the eastern port city of Ismailia.
If
it turns out ISIS militants are behind the latest attack, "it reflects
their willingness to continue to do large operations that have large
civilian casualties," Timothy Kaldas, a non-resident fellow at the
Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told CNN.
There
would be two plausible motives for an ISIS attack, he said. First, ISIS
considers Sufis to be heretics, making the Sufi mosque a legitimate
target in the eyes of ISIS, even though all worshippers probably weren't
Sufi.
Second, Kaldas said, ISIS
may be taking revenge against members of the Sawarkah tribe, to which
most of the people in the area belong, because it has been cooperating
with the Egyptian government in its campaign against Wilayat Sinai.
