EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — The Latest on mosque attack in Egypt (all times local):
7:30 p.m.
Egyptian state news agency MENA is reporting that the death toll from an attack on a mosque in the volatile northern Sinai Peninsula has risen to 235 people killed. The attack appeared to be the latest by the area’s local Islamic State affiliate. It added that 109 people had been wounded.
The attack on the al-Rawdah mosque, largely attended by Sufi Muslims, in the town of Bir al-Abd, 40 km (25 miles) from the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish.
Officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers.
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7 p.m.
Paris’ mayor says the Eiffel Tower will go black at midnight in homage to the victims of the deadly assault in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Via Twitter, Anne Hidalgo addressed her “condolences to the victims’ families” and her “support to the people wounded” after Friday’s attack in which at least 200 people were killed. She said that turning off the lights at the famed Paris monument would send a message of solidarity from the French capital that has itself been the site of a spate of deadly extremist attacks in recent years.
French President Emmanuel Macron also went to Twitter to send his “condolences to the victims of the terrible attack” against Sinai’s Bir El-Abd mosque that was attacked by militants during Friday prayers who targeted worshippers with gunfire.
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6 p.m.
Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has condemned the extremist attack on a mosque in the troubled Sinai Peninsula, calling it “criminal” and “cowardly” and expressing condolences to the victims and their families.
In a televised statement Friday evening, el-Sissi said that the attack “will not go unpunished” and that Egypt will persevere with its war on terrorism. The suffering of the victims was not in vain, he added, and will only “add to our insistence” to combat terrorism.
Officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers, killing at least 200 people and wounding some 130
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5:55 p.m.
President Donald Trump is denouncing what he’s calling the “Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers in Egypt.”
Militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, settling off explosives, spraying worshippers with gunfire and killing at least 200 people in the deadliest ever attack on Egyptian civilians by Islamic extremists.
Trump says on Twitter that: “The world cannot tolerate terrorism” and that “we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!”
Trump’s tweet came as he was playing golf at one of his Florida courses with Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson.
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4:50 p.m.
Egyptian state news agency MENA reports that 200 people have been killed in a bombing and shooting attack on a mosque in the volatile northern Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be the latest attack by the area’s local Islamic State affiliate.
Citing official sources, MENA said 130 people were also wounded in the attack on the al-Rawdah mosque, largely attended by Sufi Muslims, in the town of Bir al-Abd, 40 km (25 miles) from the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish.
Officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers.
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4:15 p.m.
Israel is sending condolences to Egypt after 184 people were killed in an attack apparently by a group affiliated with the Islamic State on a mosque in the Sinai Peninsula.
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s education minister, said after the attack Friday that this “a time for international unity in the war on terror wherever it presents itself: Russia, Europe, the US, Israel and the Arab World — we have all been hurt by terror and must unite in our battle against it.”
Egyptian officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers.
Egypt has been battling militants in the restive Sinai region, including the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State.
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 and maintain close security cooperation.
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3:30 p.m.
Egyptian state news agency MENA reports that 184 people have been killed in a bombing and shooting attack on a mosque in the volatile northern Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be the latest attack by the area’s local Islamic State affiliate.
Citing official sources, MENA said 125 people were also wounded in the attack on the al-Rawdah mosque, largely attended by Sufi Muslims, in the town of Bir al-Abd, 40 km (25 miles) from the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish.
Earlier, officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers.
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2:50 p.m.
Egyptian state news agency MENA reports that 85 people have been killed in a bombing and shooting attack on a Sufi mosque in the volatile northern Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be the latest attack by the area’s local Islamic State affiliate.
Citing official sources, MENA said 80 people were also wounded in the attack on the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, 40 km (25 miles) from the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish.
Earlier, officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers.
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2:30 p.m.
Egyptian state news agency MENA reports that 54 people have been killed in a bombing and shooting attack on a mosque in the volatile northern Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be the latest attack by the area’s local Islamic State affiliate.
Citing official sources, MENA said 75 people were also wounded in the attack on the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, 40 km (25 miles) from the North Sinai provincial capital of el-Arish.
Earlier, officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers.
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1:50 p.m.
Egyptian security officials say militants have attacked a mosque in the volatile Sinai Peninsula, leaving dozens of casualties.
The three police officers say the extremists attacked the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, 40 km (25 miles) from the North Sinai provincial capital of el-Arish.
They say men in four off-road vehicles opened fire on worshipers during Friday prayers.
Victims are being transferred to local hospitals, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief reporters.