Cairo dismisses security official over Daesh attack on Christians
Unidentified gunmen killed 29 Coptic Christians last Friday as they were heading to the Monastery of St Samuel in Minya province, south of Cairo.
Relatives of Coptic Christians who were killed during a bus attack mourn by their coffins during a funeral service at Abu Garnous Cathedral in Minya, Egypt, on May 26, 2017.
Egyptian authorities have dismissed a senior security official over last week's deadly attack on a bus in central Egypt that left 29 Coptic Christians dead.
Last Friday, gunmen in three pick-up trucks opened fire on a bus carrying a group of Coptic Christians to the Monastery of St Samuel in Minya province, south of Cairo.
Mourners at the Sacred Family Church for the funeral of Coptic Christians who were killed on Friday in Minya, Egypt, May 26, 2017.
Late on Sunday, Interior Minister Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar sacked Minya's security chief, Faisal Dweidar, over the attack, a local security official told Anadolu Agency on Monday, requesting anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media.
The Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for last week's attack, which prompted the Egyptian military to carry out a series of air strikes over the weekend against what were described as militant "training camps" in Libya's eastern city of Derna.
Coptic Christians, whose church dates back nearly 2,000 years, make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million.
Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christian minority is one of the largest and oldest groups of Christians in the Middle East.
They say they have long suffered from persecution, but in recent months the frequency of deadly attacks against them has increased.
In April, Egyptian authorities declared a three-month state of emergency following a double attack claimed by Daesh on two churches in northern Egypt that left 45 Coptic Christian worshipers dead and scores more injured.
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