The imam at the mosque in Egypt where 305 people were murdered by terrorists carrying an ISIS flag and wearing masks has said they were ‘hitting anybody and everybody…anybody who was breathing’
Imam Mohamed Abdelfatah was about to give his Friday sermon at the al Rawdah mosque in Bir al Abed, North Sinai, when 25 to 30 terrorists opened fire and threw grenades at the estimated 500 worshippers inside.
It was Egypt’s bloodiest terrorist attack in living memory. Though no group has yet claimed responsibility the attack bore the hallmarks of ISIS.
Thirty children are among the dead and more than 100 people have been wounded. Many of Friday’s victims were buried in mass graves dug in a local cemetery.
Dozens of suspected ISIS terrorists created an arena of death around the holy house by blocking off escape routes with burnt-out cars before gunning down the penned-in worshippers. Pictured: Victims in the mosque
The public prosecutor’s office said the gunmen, wearing masks and military-style uniforms, surrounded blocked windows and a doorway before opening fire inside with automatic rifles
The terrorists torched seven cars parked outside the mosque, which belonged to worshippers inside
According to a statement from Egypt’s chief prosecutor, up to 30 bearded militants carrying the black flag of Isis took up positions in front of the mosque door and windows. They then shot at worshippers inside and fired at those trying to escape with a barrage of bullets
Speaking from a hospital bed in Sharqiya, Mr Abdelfatah said: ‘About two minutes after I climbed onto the platform, I heard what sounded like an explosion outside the mosque, and then some people came inside firing at all the worshippers.
‘Of course, as soon as people heard the firing, they all started to run, some people climbed onto the platform, I saw them piled on top of each other, and they (the assailants) were hitting anybody and everybody, anybody who was breathing.
‘I didn’t see their numbers, I didn’t see what they looked like, I could only feel their presence inside the mosque.’
In the meticulously planned attack, the murderers reportedly gunned down civilians while screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’, causing them to stampede and jump out of windows to escape.
But when the worshippers fled they were caught in the trap and massacred.
Witnesses spoke of horrific scenes during the approximately 20 minutes it took the militants to kill and maim worshippers. Pictured: The aftermath of the slaughter
A statement by chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq said the attackers arrived at the mosque in five all-terrain vehicles and positioned themselves at the main door and the facility’s 12 windows before opening fire.
They also torched seven cars parked outside the mosque, which belonged to worshippers inside.
The murderers then fled the Al-Rawdah mosque before being blown up hours later by Egyptian warplanes.
A statement by chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq said the attackers arrived at the mosque in five all-terrain vehicles and positioned themselves at the main door and the facility’s 12 windows before opening fire. Pictured: A Koran and remnants of personal belongings of victims of the explosion are seen at Al Rawdah mosque
Witnesses spoke of horrific scenes during the approximately 20 minutes it took the militants to kill and maim worshippers.
They spoke of some jumping out of windows, a stampede in a corridor leading to the washrooms and of children screaming in horror.
Some spoke of their narrow escape from a certain death, others of families that lost all or most of their male members.
One witness, Ebid Salem Mansour, said the imam had barely made it atop the mosque pulpit to deliver the sermon when intense gunfire rang out.
‘We knew that the mosque was under attack by (militants),’ he said, recounting an attack that constitutes a grim milestone in Egypt’s brutal fight against increasingly emboldened militants.
Mansour, a 38-year-old worker in a nearby salt factory, said he settled in Bir al-Abd, the small town near where the attack took place, three years ago to escape the bloodshed and fighting elsewhere in northern Sinai.
He suffered two gunshot wounds in the legs on Friday.
‘Everyone layed down on the floor and kept their heads down. If you raised your head you get shot,’ he said.
‘The shooting was random and hysterical at the beginning and then became more deliberate: Whoever they weren’t sure was dead or still breathing was shot dead.’
Ahmed Abul Gheit, head of the Arab League, which is based in Cairo, condemned the ‘terrifying crime which again shows that Islam is innocent of those who follow extremist terrorist ideology,’ his spokesman said in a statement. Pictured: Where the attack occurred
The militants were shouting Allahu Akbar, or God is great, and the children were screaming, Mansour said.
‘I knew I was injured but I was in a situation that was much scarier than being wounded. I was only seconds away from a certain death,’ he said. As the shooting took place, many of the worshippers recited their final prayers, he added.
The worshippers, according to another witness, began to jump out of windows as soon as the militants opened fire.
‘The small door that leads to the corridor for the wash rooms was about the only one where worshippers rushed to escape,’ said a 38-year-old government employee who did not want to be named for fear of retaliation.
‘There was a stampede. I fell down and then bodies piled up on top of me,’ he said.
Many of the worshippers were Sufis who are considered apostates by ultra-orthodox Salafi Muslims.
The attack bore hallmarks of ISIS. The group’s affiliate in the region, which had previously been linked to al-Qaeda, has grown more brutally effective in recent years, carrying out a series of attacks on military and civilian targets.
The jihadists had previously kidnapped and beheaded an elderly Sufi leader, accusing him of practising magic which Islam forbids, and abducted Sufi practitioners later released after ‘repenting.’
The group has killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings in Sinai and other parts of Egypt, forcing many to flee the peninsula.
People carry the victims on stretchers following the gun and bombing attack on the Rawdah mosque near the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish
In the wake of the atrocity, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared three days of mourning.
In a televised speech the president pledged to ‘respond with brutal force’, adding that ‘the army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period’.
He went on: ‘What is happening is an attempt to stop us from our efforts in the fight against terrorism, to destroy our efforts to stop the terrible criminal plan that aims to destroy what is left of our region.’