13 Die in Surge of Attacks by Muslim Extremists in Egypt
CAIRO — In a surge of bloody attacks by Islamic extremists on Egypt’s police forces and the Coptic Christian minority, 13 people have been killed this week, 12 of them Copts.
The most recent attack, in Egypt’s southern Asyut province on Monday, was part of a 2-month-old dispute over a house. Police have rounded up scores of known extremists but said only three are prime suspects.
The attacks are rattling the country’s stability and security. In the past five years, dozens have died in extremists’ attacks on security forces and the Copts, whom the extremists consider enemies of Islam. One Muslim also was killed in the recent attacks.
Money taken from murdered Copts is used to finance further operations.
Muslim fundamentalists turned to violence in the late 1970s in their quest for immediate implementation of strict Islamic law in Egypt. The extremists’ most famous victim was President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
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