Egypt Launches Air Raids on Libya After Christians Killed

Egypt Launches Air Raids on Libya After Christians Killed
Security guards stand near the site of an attack that killed at least 26 people in Minya, Egypt on May 26, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
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MINYA, Egypt—Egyptian air force planes on Friday carried out strikes directed at camps in Libya where Cairo believes militants responsible for a deadly attack on Christians earlier in the day were trained, Egyptian military sources said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he had ordered strikes against what he called terrorist camps, declaring in a televised address that states that sponsored terrorism would be punished.

The sources said six strikes took place near Derna in eastern Libya at around sundown, hours after masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in central Egypt, killing 28.

The Egyptian military said the operation was ongoing and had been undertaken once it had been ascertained that the camps had produced the gunmen behind the attack on the Coptic Christians in Minya, central Egypt, on Friday morning.

“The terrorist incident that took place today will not pass unnoticed,” Sisi said. “We are currently targeting the camps where the terrorists are trained.”

Aftermath of attack on buses and truck carrying Coptic Christians in Minya Province, Egypt on May 26, 2017. (EGYPT TV via REUTERS)
Aftermath of attack on buses and truck carrying Coptic Christians in Minya Province, Egypt on May 26, 2017. EGYPT TV via REUTERS