'Sisi will handle situation properly', says US President Trump after Egypt church attacks

Ahram Online , Sunday 9 Apr 2017

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US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in the oval office of the white house Reuters

President Donald Trump has said that the US "strongly condemns the terrorist attack" in Egypt, hours after two churches in Alexandria and Tanta were hit by blasts on Palm Sunday.

“I have great confidence that President [Abdel-Fattah] Al-Sisi will handle situation properly,” Trump said in a tweet.

Deadly blasts at Tanta's Mar Girgis Cathedral and Alexandria's St Mark's Cathedral, where Pope Tawadros II was leading a service, killed over 40 people and injured more than 100 people in the deadliest attack targeting Copts in years.

Earlier on Sunday, the US embassy in Egypt condemned “the heinous, reprehensible terrorist attack against peaceful worshippers at Saint George’s Church in Tanta on one of the holiest days of the Christian year.”

“The United States stands firmly with the Egyptian government and people to defeat terrorism,” the embassy said.

Egypt’s president visited Washington last week in his first official visit to the US as head of state, returning to Cairo on Friday.

Trump said this week that he was "very much behind" El-Sisi, who he said has a “great friend and ally in the United States.”
 

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