ICC Note:

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombing of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt that led to the death of 25 Christians attending church last Sunday. The attack stands as the deadliest attack on Christians in Egypt’s recent history. ISIS went on to warn that more attacks on Christians would be perpetrated in the coming days, causing may Egyptian Christians to reconsider their Christmas celebration plans. Will more attacks on Christian happen in the coming days or with Egypt be able to secure this persecuted minority? 

12/14/2016 Egypt (New York Times) – Egypt faced the prospect of a surge in sectarian bloodshed on Tuesday after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Coptic cathedral in Cairo that killed 25 people on Sunday. The group warned of more attacks to come.

As Christians gathered in churches to pay their respects to the victims, most of them women, the Islamic State said it had sent a suicide bomber to the chapel on the grounds of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, the seat of the Egyptian Orthodox Church.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, identified the bomber by his nom de guerre, Abu Abdallah al-Masri. The Egyptian authorities on Monday identified the attacker as Mahmoud Shafik Mohamed Mostafa, but said he had used a different alias. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

A surveillance video made public by the Egyptian authorities showed a figure, said to be Mr. Mostafa, as he entered the church, followed moments later by a blast. It was the deadliest militant attack on Egyptian civilians in years, and the country’s worst act of sectarian violence since another Islamist group bombed a Coptic church in Alexandria in 2011.

The Islamic State vowed to escalate its “war on polytheism” — a phrase that, in the Egyptian context, is a thinly veiled reference to Christianity. The threat suggested that the group, which has been battling the Egyptian military in the Sinai Peninsula for years, planned to intensify its operations in Egypt’s biggest cities.

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