UPDATE: On Twitter, President Trump renewed calls for a travel ban after the terror attack in Egypt.
Will be calling the President of Egypt in a short while to discuss the tragic terrorist attack, with so much loss of life. We have to get TOUGHER AND SMARTER than ever before, and we will. Need the WALL, need the BAN! God bless the people of Egypt.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017
***Original Post***
Terrorists have killed 235 people and injured over 100 others in a mosque attack in Sinai, Egypt. The militants opened fire on worshippers during Friday prayer. It is the deadliest attack on Egyptian civilians ever waged by Islamic extremists, according to the Associated Press.
The terrorists have been wreaking havoc in the region for years, but no attack had reached this magnitude.
The attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of Islam’s mystical movement, in the north Sinai town of Bir al-Abd. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith.
The IS affiliate has been waging a stepped-up campaign of violence in northern Sinai for years and has claimed deadly bombings on churches in the capital, Cairo, and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. It also is believed to have been behind the 2016 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226.
But this was the first major militant attack on a Muslim mosque and the startling bloodshed eclipsed any past attacks of its kind, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency in the 1990s.
The militants reportedly fired on the worshippers from four off-road vehicles and blocked escape routes.
President Trump has issued the following statement.
Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017
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