Egypt: Attack on Bus Bound for Coptic Monastery Causes Casualties

Egyptian forces via AFP
Egyptian forces via AFP
TT

Egypt: Attack on Bus Bound for Coptic Monastery Causes Casualties

Egyptian forces via AFP
Egyptian forces via AFP

At least seven people were killed and others were wounded in an attack on a bus driving towards a Coptic monastery in Egypt on Friday, the Archbishop in Minya said.

Coptic sources said unknown gunmen fired a barrage on two buses carrying the Copts who were on their way to the monastery of St. Samuel in Minya south of the country.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Reuters.

Security forces quickly surrounded the area as ambulances were rushed in to transport the injured to hospitals.

The exact location witnessed a similar terrorist incident in May 2017, when gunmen travelling in four-wheel-drives attacked two buses and a truck carrying a number of Copts to the monastery of Anba Samuel in Minya, killing 29 people and injuring 25 others.



Trump’s Middle East Envoy Says Progress Being Made on Israeli Hostages in Gaza

Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
TT

Trump’s Middle East Envoy Says Progress Being Made on Israeli Hostages in Gaza

Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)

President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday he hopes to have good things to report about Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza by the time Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20.

Witkoff, at a press conference held by Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, said: "I'm really hopeful that by the inaugural we'll have some good things to announce on behalf of the President."

Republican Trump said of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas in the Oct. 7 2024 attack on Israel: "If the hostages are not back by the time I'm in office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone."