Egypt launches air strikes in Libya following deadly bus attack against Coptic Christians

Egypt has launched air strikes targeting terrorist bases in Libya on Friday in response to the killing of 29 Coptic Christians in the south of Cairo earlier that day.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the shooting attack on two buses and a truck carrying Coptic Christians in the Egyptian province of Minya. The Copts were on their way to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, 85 miles south of Cairo, when the convoy was stopped by up to 10 armed men dressed as soldiers. At least two children, aged two and four, were among those who were killed after the gunmen opened fire on the Copts.

Just hours after the incident, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi ordered the air strikes on what he called terrorist camps in Libya. "Egypt will not hesitate to strike terrorist camps anywhere," he said.

According to CBC, six air strikes were carried out near Derna in eastern Libya at around sundown. The Egyptian military said that the operation had been conducted after it was determined that the camps had produced the gunmen who were responsible for attacking the Coptic Christians on Friday morning.

"The terrorist incident that took place today will not pass unnoticed. We are currently targeting the camps where the terrorists are trained," Sissi said.

East Libyan forces, who are close allies of Egypt, said they participated in the air raids, which had targeted a number of sites used by forces linked to al-Qaeda.

A resident in Derna said that the camps targeted in the attacks have been used by fighters belonging to the Majlis al-Shura militant group.

Majlis al-Shura spokesperson Mohamed al-Mansouri claimed in a video that the raids did not hit any of the group's camps, but instead hit civilian areas.

According to the Guardian, more air strikes were conducted against Libyan terrorist bases on Saturday, with a warning that there may be more raids coming, possibly including groundstrikes.

Sissi had declared a state of emergency in Egypt in April following the suicide bombings that killed 45 people on two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday.

Some say the attack on Friday has undermined the Egyptian government's efforts to boost its security after the Palm Sunday bombings.

"This proves that applying the state of emergency doesn't provide safety and Coptic Christians are still heavily targeted," said Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher on religious affairs at the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

ISIS has described Coptic Christians as its "favorite prey" when the group took credit for the attack that killed 29 worshippers in a Coptic cathedral in Cairo in December 2016.

Sissi had promised Pope Towadros II, leader of the Coptic church in Egypt, that the government will not rest easy until the perpetrators of Friday's attack were punished.