The attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, which said its purpose was to force the release of the two women in Egypt. “All Christian centres, organisations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the mujahedeen (holy warriors) wherever they can reach them,” the group said.

President Hosni Mubarak urged Egypt’s Christians and Muslims to unite against “terrorism” after a New Year’s bomb killed 21 people at a church, but tempers continued to flare hours later as Christian protestors clashed with police.

The interior ministry said evidence showed that the attack on a church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria was carried out by a suicide bomber and that it was the work of “foreign elements.”

There was no immediate claim, but Al-Qaeda has threatened Christians everywhere, and called for punishment of Egypt’s Copts, over claims that two priests’ wives they say had converted to Islam were being held by the church against their will.

A health ministry official in Alexandria said 21 people were killed and 79 wounded.
The interior ministry said eight of those wounded were Muslims, as there is a mosque across the street.

A witness had told private television On-TV that he had seen a car park outside the church shortly after midnight, that two men got out and that the explosion occurred almost immediately afterwards…

The device was packed with pieces of metal to cause the maximum amount of harm…

Nermin Nabil, who was injured in the attack, said hundreds of people were still inside the church at the time of the blast, and that “if the bishop had finished saying mass two minutes earlier, the bloodbath would have been worse.”

Read More: http://www.canada.com/news/Egypt+Christians+vent+anger+after+deadly+church+blast/4047677/story.html

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