All the flags of Egypt lowered on Saturday across the country in national mourning according to a presidential decree issued on Friday following the country’s deadliest attack since the 1970s in North Sinai’s Bir El-Abd.
Egypt’s Prosecutor General’s office issued on Saturday a new statement about Al-Rawdah Mosque massacre in North Sinai governorate with a new shocking updated death toll as well updated testimonies of survival.
According to the statement, the death toll in the attack reached officially 305 people including 27 children while the injured increased to 128.
It is officially a massacre
It is officially the deadliest terrorist attack in Egypt.
Unofficially, the people are speaking there about how they buried on Friday in several mass cemeteries in Bir El-Abd 327 people !!
Some families have buried their victims without heading to the hospitals where the officials count the numbers.
According to the numbers from our people in that sad village, 28 kids who did not reach 10 years old were killed in the mosque.
At least 160 men above 60 years old were killed in the Mosque. Ten families lost grandfathers, fathers and sons in the Mosque. Three generations were killed together.
At 17 families lost the father and all its sons.
The photos of mothers and wives as well old grandmothers in shock over the loss of their men are heartbreaking.
The people of Bir Al-Abd buried tens of victims in mass graves overnight using bulldozers.
There were no public funerals for them.
I do not know why but I know the photos taken for the mass burial were more than sad and shocking. The locals told the journalists at Ismailia hospitals where the injured are currently treated that they would avenge
Interestingly, Hasm militant movement issued a statement denouncing the attack.
Also, the people of El-Rawdah spoke about how they received threats from ABM frequently because of the Jariri Sufi movement.
Now what scares me is that killing spree continued for few minutes and near 1/4 population of a whole village was killed.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ordered the government to pay LE 200,000 {USD 11,306} as compensation to the families of the victims. He also orders the Egyptian armed forces to build a memorial to commemorate the victims in Al-Rawda village according to the “latest designs” per a presidential statement.
I believe building a proper hospital or a clinic that small village is more useful than a memorial.
Presidential Fund “Long Live Egypt” announced that it started a campaign to collect donations in order to improve the living conditions there.
The Egyptian armed forces declared in the past 48 hours that the Egyptian air forces launched a series of airstrikes targeting “terrorist hideouts”
Egyptians are still in shock over what happened and we have to be in shock but we must ask questions, lots of questions about the war on terrorism in Egypt.
Some Egyptian officials said on Saturday that this attack was a sign of the triumph achieved in the war on terrorism !! I do not know how that attack would prove that we are winning the war on terrorism when more 300 people are killed in board daylight in a Mosque !!
Egypt’s Prosecutor General’s office issued on Saturday a new statement about Al-Rawdah Mosque massacre in North Sinai governorate with a new shocking updated death toll as well updated testimonies of survival.
According to the statement, the death toll in the attack reached officially 305 people including 27 children while the injured increased to 128.
It is officially a massacre
It is officially the deadliest terrorist attack in Egypt.
 |
| A boy and a girl searching in the shoes and slippers left on Saturday outside the mosque, maybe they would find their beloved ones "Mohamed Ibrahim |
Some families have buried their victims without heading to the hospitals where the officials count the numbers.
According to the numbers from our people in that sad village, 28 kids who did not reach 10 years old were killed in the mosque.
At least 160 men above 60 years old were killed in the Mosque. Ten families lost grandfathers, fathers and sons in the Mosque. Three generations were killed together.
At 17 families lost the father and all its sons.
 |
| A mother standing over the body of who could her son or her husband at the mosque on Friday " Mostafa Singer" |
The people of Bir Al-Abd buried tens of victims in mass graves overnight using bulldozers.
There were no public funerals for them.
I do not know why but I know the photos taken for the mass burial were more than sad and shocking. The locals told the journalists at Ismailia hospitals where the injured are currently treated that they would avenge
No one claims anything
No group has claimed its responsibility so far for the attack but as I hinted in my first post about the attack, ISIS’ affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis “ABM” is the primary suspect with their previous known attacks against Sufi shrines and Sufi sheiks in the area.Interestingly, Hasm militant movement issued a statement denouncing the attack.
Also, the people of El-Rawdah spoke about how they received threats from ABM frequently because of the Jariri Sufi movement.
What happened at the Mosque according to the survivors
As the Emam of El-Rawdah started his Friday sermon and the mosque was full of worshippers who came to pray weekly Friday prayers not only from El-Rawdah,25 to 30 gunmen surrounded the mosque from its door and windows opening their fire and killing whoever moved inside the mosque.I believe those testimonies because the mosque appeared in the photos intact unlike what claimed on Friday that it was bombed.
Some of the gunmen were masked. They wore camouflage trousers. They came in 5 SUVs carrying the black flag of Daesh according to eyewitnesses.
After killing the worshipers inside the mosque , the gunmen set the cars and trucks outside the mosque on fire.
Now what scares me is that killing spree continued for few minutes and near 1/4 population of a whole village was killed.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ordered the government to pay LE 200,000 {USD 11,306} as compensation to the families of the victims. He also orders the Egyptian armed forces to build a memorial to commemorate the victims in Al-Rawda village according to the “latest designs” per a presidential statement.
I believe building a proper hospital or a clinic that small village is more useful than a memorial.
Presidential Fund “Long Live Egypt” announced that it started a campaign to collect donations in order to improve the living conditions there.
The Egyptian armed forces declared in the past 48 hours that the Egyptian air forces launched a series of airstrikes targeting “terrorist hideouts”
Egyptians are still in shock over what happened and we have to be in shock but we must ask questions, lots of questions about the war on terrorism in Egypt.
Some Egyptian officials said on Saturday that this attack was a sign of the triumph achieved in the war on terrorism !! I do not know how that attack would prove that we are winning the war on terrorism when more 300 people are killed in board daylight in a Mosque !!
Rahman Allah swt our dead and treat our winded.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the Army and Polic have bad strategy in dealing with the terror in Sinai and Egypt.
It is almost five years now and they
Did not eliminate terrorism.
What the Army is doing in North Sinai..???? it is a Shane
God Bless those 305 dear, departed souls. God bless also the winded, that they may catch their breath. And lastly God Bless Shane, the 1953 American Technicolor Western film from Paramount Pictures.
ReplyDeleteShow some respect Jason
DeleteEvery time after a massacre of this kind, the military responded promptly with airstrikes directed at “terrorist” training camps and hideouts.
ReplyDeleteIf the military identified these locations, why they delayed their strikes until the terrorists completed their mission?
If they are guessing the locations, then they are killing randomly for a photo-op.