21, November 2017
Nigeria: Blast kills at least 50 at mosque 0
A bombing attack has killed at least 50 people at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, police say.
Police said a teenage assailant detonated his explosives early Tuesday as people were arriving for morning prayers at the mosque in the town of Mubi in Nigeria’s Adamawa State.
“So far, we have at least 50 dead from an attack at a mosque in Mubi,” state police spokesman Othman Abubakar said Tuesday.
He added that Takfiri Boko Haram terrorists were responsible for the attack.
The Tuesday attack saw the highest loss of life since September, when 18 people were killed in a bombing attack in the nearby Borno State.
Abubakar said officials were “still trying to ascertain the number of injured because they are in various hospitals.”
More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its deadly campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon as well.
A large-scale government offensive has pushed the militants from key areas they used to control, although sporadic attacks have continued over the past months.
Source: Presstv
24, November 2017
Egypt: 235 killed in attack on mosque 0
At least 235 people have been killed and over 130 others injured in a shooting attack and bombing at a mosque in the restive Sinai Peninsula, state TV says.
Police officers said militants attacked al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the North Sinai provincial capital of el-Arish, during Friday prayers.
The attack, the deadliest single incident in the country’s recent history, reportedly targeted the supporters of Egyptian security forces attending prayers there.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which had the hallmarks of the Daesh-affiliated Velayat Sinai terrorist group.
A security source was quoted by Sky News as saying that Egyptian military drones killed 15 perpetrators of the Friday attack. The source, however, did not provide further details on the attackers’ affiliation or where the airstrikes were carried out.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television reported. The Egyptian president announced three days of national mourning.
“The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period,” Sisi said.
The Sinai Peninsula has been under a state of emergency since October 2014, after a deadly terrorist attack left 33 Egyptian soldiers dead.
Over the past few years, militants have been carrying out anti-government activities and fatal attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil in Egypt that erupted after the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted in a military coup in July 2013.
Velayat Sinai has claimed responsibility for most of the assaults. The group later expanded its attacks to target members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community as well as foreigners visiting the country. That has prompted the government to impose the state of emergency and widen a controversial crackdown, which critics say has mostly targeted dissidents.
Source: Presstv