Trump has "great confidence" Egypt's president will "handle situation properly"
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump spoke out after deadly bombings hit two Coptic churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday, tweeting that he has “great confidence” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will handle the situation “properly.”
...confidence that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 9, 2017
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombings, which killed dozens of people and wounded about a hundred more at the beginning of the Christian Holy Week.
Christians are a minority in Egypt, where Islam is the dominant religion.
In the first attack, a bomb went off at St. George’s Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, killing at least 27 people and wounding 78, according to Egyptian officials, the Associated Press reported. Not long after, a suicide bomber rushed towards St. Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria — historically, the seat of Christianity in Egypt — killing at least 16 and wounding 41, says Egypt’s Interior Ministry, according to the AP.
Mr. Trump met with the Egyptian president -- who was the first to congratulate Mr. Trump on winning the presidency -- last week in Washington, D.C. At the time, Mr. Trump told him he has a “great friend and ally in the United States and in me.” The Egyptian president promised to support Mr. Trump, “very strongly and very earnestly.”