UN condemns deadly mosque attack in Egypt

Egyptians look at bodies of victims lying in a truck following a gun and bombing attack on the Rawda mosque near North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish on November 24, 2017.
Armed attackers killed at least 235 worshippers in a bomb and gun assault on the packed mosque in Egypt’s restive North Sinai province, in the country’s deadliest attack in recent memory. / AFP PHOTO

EL-ARISH, Egypt — The U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have condemned the deadly attack on a mosque in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in “the strongest terms” and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

The council statement called it a “heinous and cowardly terrorist attack” and reiterated that all acts of terrorism “are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation.” Guterres called the attack, which killed at least 235 people, “horrific.”

Security Council members, including Egypt which is serving a two-year term, “reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.”

Both the council and the secretary-general extended deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Egypt.

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.

Meanwhile, 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. 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.