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Coptic Christians in Ramadan bus attack were killed for refusing to renounce their faith

Mourners react at the Sacred Family Church for the funeral of Coptic Christians who were killed on Friday in Minya, Egypt, May 26, 2017. | Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

The 29 Coptic Christians who were killed by the Islamic State at the start of Ramadan on Friday were reportedly asked to renounce their faith but they refused.

The Coptic Christians were on their way to the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor when ISIS militants stopped their bus and opened fire on them. But survivors of the attack said that the militants made the victims descend from the bus and asked them one by one whether they were Christians before they were shot by the assailants.

Father Rashed, one of the group's chaplains, recounted that the victims were asked to renounce their faith and profess belief in Islam, but all of them, including the children, refused. He said that the victims were then killed with a gunshot to the head or the throat.

Two girls, aged 2 and 4, were among the victims, according to a list released by the local government in Minya, where the attack took place. Another 26 people, including nine children, sustained injuries, but only 11 of them remained hospitalized on Sunday.

A young woman, who was one of the injured, said that the attackers told the women to surrender their jewelry before they opened fire, killing the men first before shooting some of the women. She noted that the gunmen wore masks and military uniforms.

A video clip that was purportedly taken shortly after the attack showed at least four or five bodies of men lying on the desert sand, as women and other men screamed and cried next to the bodies.

Egypt responded to the attack by launching a series of airstrikes against suspected militant bases where the perpetrators were said to have trained, according to The Associated Press.

The police and soldiers are conducting a large-scale manhunt, backed by helicopters, in the vast deserts to the west of the site of the attack, but no arrests have been made as yet.

During the funerals for the victims that were held over the weekend, there were some chants demanding retribution. There were also people who chanted, "With our lives and blood, we sacrifice ourselves for the cross" and "Oh, God!"

After learning the details of the attack, Pope Francis declared the victims as "martyrs," telling the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square on Sunday that the murdered Coptic Christians, "were killed after having refused to renounce their Christian faith."

"May the Lord welcome these courageous witnesses, these martyrs, in his peace and convert the hearts of the violent ones," the pope said.