{"id":21535,"date":"2018-11-07T17:29:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T17:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21535"},"modified":"2018-11-07T17:29:30","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T17:29:30","slug":"hiding-from-the-bullets-egypt-coptic-monastery-survivors-describe-bus-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21535","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hiding from the bullets\u2019 – Egypt Coptic monastery survivors describe bus attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Hiding from the bullets\u2019 – Egypt Coptic monastery survivors describe bus attack<\/h2>\n
\n

\nCAIRO: Survivors from an attack on a convoy of Coptic Christian pilgrims have told Arab News of the horrific moments when extremists opened fire killing seven.<\/p>\n

\nThe survivors included 7 year old Mina Basem who lost his mother Reham Milad Yusuf in the attack.\u00a0His older brother Fadi is recovering from his injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe visited the monastery and spent a wonderful time but on our way back we were attacked by two cars who fired on us,\u201d Mina said. \u201cI don\u2019t remember anything after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nA member of his family said Mina hid under the bus seats to avoid the bullets.<\/p>\n

\nAt the funeral for the victims on Saturday, Mina received condolences for the death of his mother from Bishop Makarios of Minya, and a large number of Egyptian officials who attended.<\/p>\n

\nThe attack took place as the buses approached\u00a0 the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor near Minya on Friday. Daesh admitted carrying out the attack, which also injured 21.<\/p>\n

\nA previous attack at the same location killed 28 people in may 2017.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPolicemen stand beside the microbus which carried Coptic Christians when gunmen opened fire in Minya. (Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\nThe Egyptian Interior Ministry said this week it had killed 19 people in an operation in the desert of Minya province who they said carried out attack.<\/p>\n

\nSix of the victims in the bus attack came from the Yousef Shehata family, including the three brothers Kamal, Nadi and Reza, all aged over 50.<\/p>\n

\nThey agreed before the incident to gather their wives and children to participate in the Divine Liturgy at the monastery and then return to their homes in the 6th October area south of Minya. Little did they realize that the trip would be their last.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur family has lost six of its sons,\u201d said a family member, who preferred not to be named. \u201cThey were all my loved ones, and I do not want anything else from the world than the end to the terrorism that targets all Egyptians and Copts in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nShe said the operation that killed those involved has eased the wounds a little bit.<\/p>\n

\nThe road to the monastery, now known as the Martyrs Road, is 25 kilometers long. It starts from the western desert road of Assiut to the monastery, which is in the middle of an area of rugged mountains and sand dunes.<\/p>\n

\nThe road remains dangerous despite 30 million Egyptian pounds spent improving it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nMonk Paul Samueli, the monastery\u2019s security chief, condemned blamed government officials and complex procedures that had slowed down \u201cimportant projects that maintain the security and stability of citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe said a consulting office for the project had\u00a0 been moved to the site of the road more than a year ago, but the project to pave and light the road has been slow to get started.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAn expert an author on Coptic affairs, Robier Al-Faris said the road was closed after the attack in May 2017, but it reopened a few months later because the route to the monastery is difficult for children and the elderly people to walk on.<\/p>\n

\nThe monastery has a long history of turmoil.<\/p>\n

\nIn February 1919, eight attackers managed to sneak into the monastery and severely beat all the monks inside and stole everything from curtains to clothes, according to a report by the\u201cMasr\u201d newspaper.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the article, the security forces arrested some of the accused after a few days of the incident.<\/p>\n

\nThe monastery was also targeted by the Berber tribes for centuries, Al-Faris said. He said the locatio\u00a0 in the desert and the small number of monks inside it makes it an easy target to attack, whether its by thieves or terrorists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Hiding from the bullets\u2019 – Egypt Coptic monastery survivors describe bus attack CAIRO: Survivors from an attack on a convoy of Coptic Christian pilgrims have told Arab News of the horrific moments when extremists opened fire killing seven. The survivors included 7 year old Mina Basem who lost his mother Reham Milad Yusuf in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}