schema:articleBody
| - An Islamic State-affiliated group claimed the execution of a Coptic Christian and two tribesmen in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula, in a video posted on its Telegram channel. The Coptic Orthodox Church, which represents the Christian minority ranging between 10 and 15 percent of Egypt's 100-million population, named the man killed as Nabil Habashi Salama. "He kept the faith till the moment he was killed... The church affirms its steadfast support of the Egyptian state's efforts in quelling hateful terror acts," the church's spokesperson said in a Sunday statement. In a 13-minute video released late Saturday, the 62-year-old Copt from Bir al-Abd in North Sinai is shot dead at point blank range by a militant flanked by two others carrying rifles. "As for you Christians of Egypt, this is the price you are paying for supporting the Egyptian army," the militant who executes the man says in the video. Two young Sinai tribesmen are also seen being killed in a barren, desert landscape, with the militants accusing them of fighting alongside the Egyptian military. A long-running jihadist insurgency in North Sinai escalated in 2013 when the army overthrew Egypt's elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Most attacks have been carried out in the Sinai Peninsula but they have also used the territory as a launchpad to strike elsewhere in Egypt, such as the bombing of a chapel next to the Coptic cathedral in Cairo in 2016. In February 2018, the government launched a nationwide operation against militants focused on North Sinai. The army says some 970 suspected militants have been killed in the ongoing campaign. But the region has remained largely cut off to journalists, making the compilation of independent casualty figures almost impossible. bur-tgg/hc/kir
|