Egyptian forces have struck “terrorist training camps” in retaliation for an attack on Coptic Christians, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has said.

State media say six strikes hit the town of Derna in neighbouring Libya.

Gunmen earlier attacked a bus carrying worshippers in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

President Sisi said he would “not hesitate to strike terrorist camps anywhere”.

Announcing the strike in a TV speech late on Friday, he promised to “protect our people from the evil”.

Countries supporting terrorism should be punished, he said, as he appealed to US President Donald Trump for help.

Military sources told Reuters news agency that the militants targeted in Libya had been involved in the attack on Egyptian Christians earlier in the day.

Although no group immediately said it was behind the attack, Islamic State (IS) militants have targeted Copts several times in recent months.

Libya is effectively controlled by a large number of armed militias that have emerged in the chaos since Nato-backed forces overthrew long-serving ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011.

But IS has also built a presence in Libya during the chaos.

Egypt has launched air strikes against IS in Libya before. In 2015, the military bombed several sites, also near Derna, after militants released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians.

The Copts killed on Friday had been travelling to the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor, 135km (85 miles) south of Cairo, from Minya province when their bus came under fire.

It was in a small convoy that was stopped on a desert road near a police station on the border with Beni Suef provinces.

Gunmen wearing military uniforms attacked the convoy with automatic weapons before fleeing in 4X4 vehicles, eyewitnesses said.

Minya Province Bishop Makarios said many of the victims were shot at point blank range, the New York Times reported.

He said that children had been on the bus and were among the dead, adding that a pick-up truck in the convoy carrying workmen at the monastery was also targeted.

Minutes after President Sisi’s speech, the White House released a statement of support from Mr Trump.

“This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls,” he said.

“America stands with President Sisi and all the Egyptian people today, and always, as we fight to defeat this common enemy,” he added.

Copts make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 92 million.

Two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta on 9 April left 46 people dead.

Those attacks prompted President Sisi to declare a three-month nationwide state of emergency and promise to do whatever was necessary to confront jihadist militants, most of whom are based in northern Sinai.

But many Copts complain that the Egyptian authorities are not doing enough to protect them, says the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Cairo.

There is now a real sense of fear, and a feeling of being hunted, she adds.</s>Minya, Egypt: Egyptian air force planes on Friday carried out strikes directed at camps in Libya where Cairo believes militants responsible for a deadly attack on Christians earlier in the day were trained, Egyptian military sources said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he had ordered strikes against what he called terrorist camps, declaring in a televised address that states that sponsored terrorism would be punished.

The sources said six strikes took place near Derna in eastern Libya at around sundown, hours after masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians travelling to a monastery in central Egypt, killing 28.

The Egyptian military said the operation was ongoing and had been undertaken once it had been ascertained that the camps had produced the gunmen behind the attack on the Coptic Christians in Minya, central Egypt, on Friday morning.

"The terrorist incident that took place today will not pass unnoticed," Sisi said. "We are currently targeting the camps where the terrorists are trained."

He said Egypt would not hesitate to carry out further strikes against camps that trained people to carry out operations against Egypt, whether those camps were inside or outside the country.

The Egyptian military posted footage online of pilots being briefed and war planes taking off for the raids.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the Christians, which came on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan. It followed a series of church bombings claimed by Islamic State in a campaign of violence against the Copts.

Islamic State supporters reposted videos from earlier this year urging violence against the Copts in Egypt.

At a nearby village, thousands later attended a funeral service that turned into an angry protest against the authorities' failure to protect Christians.

"We will avenge them or die like them," mourners said, while marching with a giant wooden cross.

Eyewitnesses said masked men opened fire after stopping the Christians, who were in a bus and other vehicles on a desert road. Local TV channels showed a bus apparently raked by gunfire and smeared with blood.

Clothes and shoes could be seen lying in and around the bus, while the bodies of some of the victims lay in the sand nearby, covered with black sheets.

The attack, which Egypt's Muslim leaders condemned, happened 15 km from the monastery, a security official on the scene told Reuters.

Police armed with assault rifles formed a security perimeter and officials from the public prosecutor's office were gathering evidence and fingerprints. Heavily armed special forces arrived later wearing face masks and body armour.

The injured were taken to local hospitals and some were being transported to Cairo. One of the vehicles attacked was taking men to carry out maintenance work at the monastery while another had children on board, officials said.

Dozens of people gathered at the emergency area of a local hospital. Some carried a wooden coffin to a hearse.

The Health Ministry said that among those injured were two children aged two.

US President Donald Trump, who has made a point of improving relations with Cairo, said America stood with Sisi and the Egyptian people.

"This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls," Trump said.

The attack "steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organizations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted, and thuggish ideology."

The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country.

"I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism," Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit. The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, condemned the perpetrators as traitors.

The Coptic church said it had received news of the killing of its "martyrs" with pain and sorrow.

Pope Francis, who visited Cairo a month ago, described the attack as a "senseless act of hatred".

The attack took place on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

Coptic Christians, whose church dates back nearly 2000 years, make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million.

They say they have long suffered from persecution, but in recent months the frequency of deadly attacks against them has increased. About 70 have been killed since December in bombings claimed by Islamic State at churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta.

An Islamic State campaign of murders in North Sinai prompted hundreds of Christians to flee in February and March.

Copts fear they will face the same fate as brethren in Iraq and Syria, where Christian communities have been decimated by wars and Islamic State persecution.

Egypt's Copts are vocal supporters of Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians. He declared a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of the church bombings in April.

But many Christians feel the state either does not take their plight seriously enough or cannot protect them against determined fanatics.

The government is fighting insurgents affiliated with Islamic State who have killed hundreds of police and soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, while also carrying out attacks elsewhere in the country.</s>Children are among at least 28 people massacred in Egypt and dozens more injured after gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians.

The health ministry said the victims had been on their way to the St Samuel the Confessor monastery when they were surrounded by eight to 10 attackers wearing military uniforms and masks.

The Christians’ bus was blocked by three vehicles before the militants opened fire, as it travelled through the Minya region towards Maghagha.

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Television footage showed a bus raked with bullets and with its windows smashed, surrounded by bodies covered in black plastic sheets. Local reports said only three children survived.

In response to the attacks, the Egyptian military launched airstrikes against what it said were militant training facilities in Libya.

Muslim leaders including the Grand Mufti of Egypt and the grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt’s 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, condemned the act of “brutal terrorism” and called on Egyptians to unite.

The Coptic church said it had received news of the killing of its “martyrs” with pain and sorrow.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, which followed Isis bombings that killed at least 46 people at churches in Tanta and Alexandria over Easter.

The terrorist group has targeted Christians and other religious minorities around the world and has called for fresh attacks to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Coptic Christians have been kidnapped and beheaded in Libya, while Sufi Muslims have been massacred in Pakistan, Yazidis subject to genocide in Iraq and Shia Muslims massacred across the Middle East.

Muslim leaders have united in opposition to the group’s atrocities in Egypt, forcing Isis to issue a lengthy propaganda article seeking to justify the murder of women and children.

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It said “belligerent” Christians in Egypt deserve no protection under its version of sharia law, adding: “With regards to those of the non-combatant women and children from among the belligerent Christians who are killed unintentionally, their blood is waste.”

The Easter attacks caused President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi, who himself came to power in a military coup, to declare a new state of emergency.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is the largest Christian denomination in Egypt, making up around 10 per cent of the country’s residents, but has suffered successive rounds of persecution by Islamists.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights recorded 77 sectarian attacks on Copts in Minya province alone between 2011 and 2016, as well as many more incidents of vandalism at churches and schools.

Pope Francis showed his support during a visit to Egypt last month, paying tribute to the victims of another church attack in Cairo in December.

Isis responded by vowing to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and western embassies as potential targets.

Isis operates an affiliate in central Egypt as well as on the Sinai Peninsula, where militants brought down a Russian passenger plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh in 2015.

Additional reporting by agencies</s>WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump vowed Friday to crush "evil organizations of terror" following an attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt that killed more than two dozen people near Cairo and prompted the country's leader to appeal to Trump to lead the fight against global terrorism.

In a sharply worded statement, Trump condemned terrorists who were "engaged in a war against civilization" and decried the "merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt." He said the attack on a bus carrying Christians, many of them children, would steel the nation's resolve to destroy terrorist organizations and expose "their depraved, twisted and thuggish ideology."

Trump, attending the G-7 meeting in Sicily, said the U.S. would stand with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who vowed to strike back at the training bases of Islamic State militants suspected of waging the attacks. Egyptian fighter jets struck militant bases in eastern Libya.

From left, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, French newly elected President Emmanuel Macron, British PM Theresa May, and US President Donal Trump talk to each other prior to the start of the leaders of the G7 countries summit in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Macron, May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni -- forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

El-Sissi, in his televised address, said of the U.S. president: "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

Trump said in his statement that the U.S. "makes clear to its friends, allies and partners that the treasured and historic Christian communities of the Middle East must be defended and protected. The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished."

It was the latest sign of the burgeoning friendship between Trump and el-Sissi, the former general who toppled democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member. It marks a change from former President Barack Obama, who often kept el-Sissi at a distance and criticized Egypt's human rights record and suspended some U.S. military aid.

Trump and el-Sissi held talks in Saudi Arabia last week ahead of the Arab-Islamic-U.S. summit, a gathering that followed an April meeting at the White House.

Trump has made fighting terrorism a focal point of his first overseas trip as president, which ends this weekend. During a stop in Saudi Arabia, Trump and King Salman inaugurated a state-of-the-art center in Riyadh aimed at monitoring and countering extremism.</s>Gunmen Attack Coptic Christians in Egypt | At least 28 Dead

Gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians as they were driving to a monastery south of Cairo on Friday, killing at least 28 and wounding dozens including children, the governor of Egypt’s Minya province, Essam al-Bedaiwy, said. The group was traveling in two buses and a small truck in Minya province, which is home to […]

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Also, Like us on facebook</s>Twenty-six people have been killed in Egypt after unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians, according to state-run media.

The passengers were traveling Friday to a monastery, St. Samuel the Confessor, near the central city of Minya when they came under attack, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mugahed told TV al-Masriya.

He said that 25 others were also injured as the gunmen fired from two cars on a desert road around 100 km (62 miles) west of Minya. Fifty ambulances are now at the scene.

There were men, women and children among the dead and injured, Mugahed said, some of whom are now in critical condition.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the shooting.

Coptic Christians have faced persecution and discrimination in Egypt, which has spiked since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak’s regime in 2011. Dozens have been killed in sectarian violence.

Coptic Christians make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 91 million. They base their theology on the teachings of the apostle Mark, who introduced Christianity to Egypt.

The country is still under a three-month state of emergency period following twin attacks on Coptic churches in the country on Palm Sunday last month, in attacks claimed by ISIS.

In December, an attack on a Coptic church in Cairo killed 25 people.

Coptic churches and homes have been set on fire, members of the Coptic minority have been physically attacked, and their property has been looted, rights group Amnesty International reported in March.

A church in Minya was torched in 2013, gutting its interior.</s>CAIRO, Egypt — Twenty-six people have been killed in Egypt after unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in what officials are calling a terror attack.

Ten assailants wearing fatigues and face masks fired on the passengers from three four-wheel drive vehicles, Egypt’s Interior Ministry told CNN.

The Christians were traveling Friday to a monastery, St. Samuel the Confessor, around 100 km (62 miles) northwest of the city of Minya when they came under fire, the ministry said.

Twenty-five others were also injured, some of whom are now in critical condition, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mugahed told state-run TV al-Masriya. Men, women and children are among the dead and injured, and 50 ambulances are now at the scene, he said.

The attack comes as the country is still under a three-month state of emergency period following twin attacks on Coptic churches on Palm Sunday last month that killed dozens of people, in attacks claimed by ISIS.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the shooting, but Coptic Christians have been targeted by ISIS militants several times in recent years and ongoing violence has triggered a mass exodus of Coptic Christians from some towns.

Coptic Christians make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 91 million. They base their theology on the teachings of the apostle Mark, who introduced Christianity to Egypt.

Persecution and discrimination against Egypt’s Coptic Christians has spiked since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak’s regime in 2011.

In December, an attack on a Coptic church in Cairo killed 25 people.

Coptic churches and homes have been set on fire, members of the Coptic minority have been physically attacked, and their property has been looted, rights group Amnesty International reported in March.

A church in Minya was torched in 2013, gutting its interior.</s>(CNN) A gun attack that killed at least 26 Coptic Christians on a bus in Egypt is just the latest assault on the religious minority group, which has been a target for deadly violence throughout its history.

Ten masked gunman in fatigues opened fire from three vehicles at the passengers as they traveled Friday to a monastery near the city of Minya, the Interior Ministry said. Twenty-five others have been injured, and children are among the victims.

Here's what you need to know about Egypt's native Christians, who trace their origins back to ancient times.

Coptic Christians in Cairo pray for the victims of EgyptAir Flight 804 crash in May 2016.

The largest Christian community in the Middle East, Coptic Christians make up the majority of Egypt's roughly 9 million Christians. About 1 million more Coptic Christians are spread across Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the World Council of Churches.

Coptic Christians base their theology on the teachings of the Apostle Mark, who introduced Christianity to Egypt, according to the St. Takla Church in Alexandria, the capital of Coptic Christianity.

The Coptic language descends from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, according to the World Council of Churches. The word "Copt" is a Westernized version of the Arabic "qibt," which is derived from the ancient Greek word for Egyptian, "Aigyptos."

Hundreds of Coptic monasteries once flourished in the deserts of Egypt, but today roughly 20 remain, as well as seven convents, operated by more than 1,000 Coptic monks and about 600 nuns.

The head of the Coptic Church is the Pope of Alexandria, who is based in Cairo. The church operates primary and secondary schools throughout Egypt, as well as a Coptic museum and a theological college in the Egyptian capital.

Coptic Christians have been targeted for violence throughout history, notably under the Byzantine Empire and periodically after the Arab conquest in the 7th century. An Islamic caliph in power around the year 1000 A.D. is said to have destroyed 3,000 Coptic churches and forced large numbers of Copts to abandon their faith.

Recent political upheaval in Egypt has brought more violence to the Coptic community. Persecution and discrimination has spiked since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak's regime in 2011. Dozens of Copts have been killed in religion-based violence.

Egypt was placed under a state of emergency following the attacks and as ISIS promised more carnage. But Copts, who have long been targeted for violence, are not optimistic the situation will change

Last December, a suicide bomber targeted a small church attached to St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo, killing 25 people and wounding nearly 50 others. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Coptic churches and homes have been set on fire, members of the Coptic minority have been physically attacked, and their property has been looted, rights group Amnesty International reported in March.

Copts have been targeted outside Egypt as well: In early 2015, a highly produced ISIS propaganda video purported to show the beheadings of over a dozen Egyptian Copts on a beach in Libya.

There is little Christian representation in government in Egypt, which is about 90% Sunni Muslim. The current Parliament contains 36 Christians out of 596 members, and 24 of the Christian representatives were awarded seats through a religion-based quota system, according to a report from the Brookings Institution

Brookings' report finds many Copts suffer routine discrimination despite protections under Egyptian law. The 2014 constitution guarantees "absolute" freedom of religion -- but also declares Islam the state's official religion and prohibits conversion to any other religion.

The constitution also lays out harsh punishments for blasphemy, and the government under current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has prosecuted several high-profile blasphemy cases, according to Brookings.

This story has been updated to reflect the most recent attack on Coptic Christians.</s>At Least 28 Dead, Many Wounded, After Attack On Christians In Egypt

There was another deadly attack on Christians in Egypt Friday as gunmen opened fire on two buses taking worshippers to mass. At least 28 people were killed in the attack.</s>More than 20 people were killed Friday when gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery in Egypt. There have been a number of recent attacks claimed by ISIS on Coptic Christians in the country.

Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson gets the latest from NPR’s Jane Arraf (@janearraf) in Cairo.
Gunmen open fire on buses carrying Coptic Christians in Minya Governorate, Egypt, killing at least 28 people and injuring dozens more.