CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for bombing two Egyptian churches on Sunday in the deadliest attacks in the country in recent memory.
“Islamic State squads carried out the attacks on two churches in Tanta and Alexandria,” said the group’s self-styled Amaq news agency in a statement published on social media accounts.
Egypt’s interior ministry said a suicide bomber was behind the blast in Alexandria that killed 11 people on Sunday.
The bomber had tried to storm the church where Coptic Pope Tawadros II was leading a Sunday service but blew himself up when police prevented him from entering, the ministry said in a statement.
A Coptic church official said Tawadros had left the church before the blast.