Oman condemns Egypt blast

Oman has condemned a blast in Egypt that claimed 25 lives and left 60 people injured.

In a tweet, Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the blast that rocked a Coptic church in Egypt's Nile Delta. 

The ministry also expressed its solidarity with Egypt in the tweet and also wished a speedy recovery for the injured.

According to Reuters, at least 25 people were killed and 60 injured when the explosion rocked a Coptic church in Egypt's Nile Delta.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility and the cause of the blast, just one week before Coptic Easter and the same month that Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Egypt, was not known.

The bombing in Tanta, a Nile Delta city less than 100 kilometres from Cairo, comes as terrorists in Egypt appear to be stepping up attacks on Christians and threatening them in messages blasted out to followers.

In February, Christian families and students fled Egypt's North Sinai province in droves after Islamic State began a spate of targeted killings there.

Those attacks came after one of the deadliest on Egypt's Christian minority in years - before today - when a suicide bomber hit its largest Coptic cathedral, killing at least 25. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Eyewitnesses to Sunday's blast described a scene of carnage.

"There was a huge explosion in the hall. Fire and smoke filled the room and the injuries were extremely severe," Vivian Fareeg told Reuters by phone.

"There was blood all over the floor and body parts scattered," said another Christian woman who was inside the church.

President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail are set to visit the site on Sunday and Sisi has ordered an emergency national defence council meeting.

Tanta was also the site of another attack earlier this month, when a policeman was killed and 15 were injured after a bomb exploded near a police training centre.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis condemned the deadly blast and said at a Palm Sunday Mass that the world was suffering from wars, terrorism and "interests that are armed and ready to strike".

Francis, who has not made any direct public comment on the current Middle East crisis, conducted the Mass as international tensions increased following the US missile strike on a Syrian air base, which the Pentagon says was involved in a chemical weapons attack that killed 87 people.

"I pray for the dead and the victims. May the Lord convert the hearts of people who sow terror, violence and death and even the hearts of those who produce and traffic in weapons," he said in hastily prepared comments at the end.
 

Source: Timesofoman