Egypt’s chief prosecutor on November 25 said the attack on a Sinai mosque has killed 305 people, including 27 children.
In a statement, Nabil Sadeq said the attack that occurred a day earlier also left 126 people wounded.
Mr. Sadeq said the attack was carried out by 25-30 militants, who arrived at the mosque in the small town of Bir al-Abd in five all-terrain vehicles. They stationed themselves at the mosque’s main door and 12 windows before opening fire on the worshippers inside. They also torched seven parked outside.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, the deadliest by extremists in Egypt’s modern history. Millions of Egyptians practice Sufi rituals auch as reciting poetry, dancing and singing as means to be closer to God.
President Abdel-Fattah el- Sissi has ordered the construction of a mausoleum for those killed in the attack.
A presidential statement did not say where the mausoleum would stand or who would be commissioned to build it, but the decision to have one reflects the depth of grief felt by the government over the death of so many people in the attack.
Relatives of the victims of the bomb and gun assault on the North Sinai Rawda mosque wait outside the Suez Canal University hospital in the eastern port city of Ismailia on November 25, 2017, where they were taken to receive treatment following the deadly attack the day before.
The military said warplanes struck several vehicles used in the attack, destroying them and killing all passengers in the vicinity of the attack.
A local Islamic State affiliate is spearheading the insurgency in Sinai, where government forces have battled militants for years.
