Islamic Radicals Attack Police Checkpoint, Egyptian Church on Easter

Islamic jihadists carried out deadly attacks in Egypt’s two biggest cities Sunday, storming a church in Alexandria and conducting a bombing attack in Cairo, which resulted in the death of a police officer and wounded several more.

In Alexandria, Islamic militants conducted a drive-by shooting at the Church of the Angel Rafael, wounding four before they took off in their vehicle, which was described by NBC News as a microbus.

In an upper-class area of Cairo, jihadists killed a police officer after detonating a bomb in the district of Zamalek, Interior Ministry officials revealed.

Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt in English), an Islamist group that first surfaced in 2014, took responsibility for the bombing attack on social media. The group is responsible for at least 26 separate attacks on Egyptian military and police positions over the past year, according to the Interior Ministry.

“Again God has enabled our brave soldiers from planting a sticky bomb [sic] in a gathering for the criminal institutions above the 15th of May Bridge,” said the group’s Twitter post.

Hours after the bombing, the group’s founder was found and shot dead by Egyptian military forces, security officials have revealed.

In December, the U.S. State Department designated Ajnad Misr as a terrorist organization.

The State Department designation reveals that the group was an affiliate of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a jihadi terror outfit in Egypt that recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror group and now calls itself the Sinai Province (of the Islamic State).

“Ajnad Misr officially announced its formation in January 2014, and has since claimed numerous attacks on Egyptian security forces at government buildings, public spaces and universities, often injuring or killing innocent bystanders,” said the State Department designation.