Egypt says police kill two gunmen behind November attack on Christians

Islamic State claims responsibility for last month’s attack, which killed at least seven Christians

CAIRO: Egyptian police killed two gunmen who carried out last month’s attack on a bus carrying Christians in Minya governorate to the south of Cairo, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

Police, helped by the military, found the gunmen in Assiut governorate, which lies to the south of Minya, it said in a statement. They were in possession of three automatic rifles, one shotgun and an unspecified amount of ammunition.

Security forces also found one of the vehicles used in the November 2 attack, which killed at least seven Christians who were returning from baptizing a child at a Coptic monastery in central Egypt.



The mobile phone of one of the victims of the attack, Kamal Yousef Shehata, was also found, the ministry said.

On November 3, a day after the attack near the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor in Minya, security forces killed 19 militants suspected of involvement.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for last month’s attack, which took place at exactly the same spot as a May 2017 attack that killed 28 Christians. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.