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| Africa North |
| Perpetrators of Egypt church shooting surrender |
| 2010-01-09 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Three suspects behind a Christmas Eve shooting that killed six Coptic Christians in southern Egypt and sent shock waves through the country's Christian minority surrender to authorities on Friday, Al Arabiya correspondent in Cairo reported. Police had scoured sugarcane fields for the three suspects and closed all their possible escape routes to the mountains west of Nagaa Hammadi, north of Luxor, forcing them to surrender. The culprits opened fire opened fire Wednesday night on the Copts as they emerged from midnight mass. They raked pedestrians along a stretch of road that housed two churches and a shopping mall, leaving pools of blood on the roadside. A Muslim policeman was also killed in the attack. The interior ministry said in a statement late on Thursday that they had found the car used in the attack and were encircling the three suspects in fields near Nagaa Hammadi. The suspects all had previous convictions, the statement said. Act of retaliation Police believe the attack was related to the alleged rape of a Muslim girl by a Coptic man in the nearby village of Farshut in November. Muslim villagers responded to that incident by burning Coptic-owned stores in Farshut and surrounded a police station where the Coptic suspect was held. Nagaa Hammadi's Bishop Kirilos told AFP that for the past week some of his parishioners had received threatening phone calls. The callers said Muslims "will avenge the rape of the girl during the Christmas celebrations," Kirilos said. Coptic mourners clashed with police on Thursday as they buried their dead. The shooting raised tensions in southern Egypt, where there have been repeated sectarian clashes in the past. Wednesday's attack, which also wounded six people, was the deadliest since 20 Copts were killed in sectarian clashes in 2000, also in southern Egypt. Copts, who account for up to 10 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million, are the Middle East's largest Christian community but complain of routine discrimination and harassment. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 alleged rape of a Muslim girl Once again the words mean different things. "Alledged" seems to mean "Already tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, so you Can't do anything aout it, Copper. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-01-09 12:35 |