Sinai mosque death toll rises to 305. ISIS targeted Sufi Bir Abed for “witchcraft”


Riding in under ISIS flags, the jihadists murdered 305 people, injured 128, on the anniversary of their slaughter of Sinai’s oldest Sufi sheikh for “heretical witchcraft.”

The calamity that overtook the tiny northern Sinai town of Bir Abed during prayers at the Al Rawda mosque on Friday, Nov. 24, is hard to reconstruct in detail. That the worst terrorist outrage in modern Egyptian history was perpetrated by ISIS North Sinai’s branch, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (ABM) is not in doubt.

Some witnesses reported that armed gunmen stormed into the mosque and detonated explosives – although the walls appear to be mostly undamaged, according to most of the footage released. Others described attackers as bursting into the mosque and shutting all its exits excepting one. People fleeing through the single door were then pointed by a gunman outside to run in one direction. There, armed men machine were waiting to mow them down with machine guns mounted on vehicles. The terrorists then entered the mosque and finished off any survivors.

The constantly rising death toll, which stood at 305 on Saturday, encompassed whole families of three generations, including some 30 children and infants. Bir Abed, a town of some 2,500 souls 30km west of El-Arish, was decimated.

In November, 2016, after destroying two Sufi shrines, ABM jihadists kidnapped from his home south of El Arish Sinai’s oldest Sufi Sheikh Soliman El-Haraz, aged 96. They slaughtered him in cold blood, accusing him of practicing “witchcraft.” Last January, ISIS-North Sinai published in its local publication Rumiyah a stern warn to the town to abandon its Sufi faith. It was illustrated with a photo showing the ancient sheikh’s “execution.” After that, local sources report that Bir Abed had been repeatedly threatened by the ISIS branch.

The atrocity committed on Friday, Nov. 24, was apparently timed to mark the anniversary of that first horror.
After an urgent conference with security officials, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Friday, pledged in a broadcast address to the shocked nation, that nothing less than “brute force” would be directed against “the small band of extremist terrorists” after Egypt’s worse ever terrorist attack. “The Armed Forces and the police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability in full force in the next period,” el-Sisi vowed, He declared three days of national mourning for the victims. A mausoleum will be built for the hundreds of dead victims.

Saturday morning, the Egyptian army said that it had conducted raids against terrorist command centers in the Rafah region and air strikes in central Sinai against the terrorist vehicles, which had mounted the mosque attack. The army claimed that at least 40 terrorists were killed. DEBKAfile’s military sources note that Egypt’s three-year military campaign against the ISIS scourge has been largely ineffective.
 

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30 thoughts on “Sinai mosque death toll rises to 305. ISIS targeted Sufi Bir Abed for “witchcraft”

  • Nov 24, 2017 @ 15:22 at 15:22
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    ISIS is Muslim Brotherhood in Sinai and Gaza

    • Nov 25, 2017 @ 16:13 at 16:13
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      they weren’t supplying enough young children to the Clinton’s for their ritualistic abuse and sharing with the british leaders.

      • Nov 26, 2017 @ 7:11 at 7:11
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        This thing is really regretable, what your father and your oncles dit to you, but people of real faith do not touch this way young children. On another hand you have suckled of youtown accord, and strongly refusing breast.

  • Nov 24, 2017 @ 17:21 at 17:21
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    Prayers for the injured, maimed and deceased from this terrible attack at a Bir al-Abed mosque during Friday prayers.

    As I’ve counselled publicly since mid 2013, the Sinai needs a dual track approach:

    Security AND Economic Development. 

    Young Bedouin men need work!

    I repeat…It is in Egypt’s interest for a moderate, traditional, monotheistic centre to be created in the Holy Land. This centre will, over time, counter/redeem/transmute the extremist orbits. The Bir al Abed Attack in north Sinai = More Islamic State “Spillover” from the Syrian Civil War !

    Today’s Bir al Abed Attack in north Sinai is the net result of a number of factors. Things are interconnected in the Holy Land and Middle East. (The Action – Reaction Dynamic.) All acts of violence, terrorism can be deconstructed for their root causes.

    • Nov 24, 2017 @ 17:52 at 17:52
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      Sincere condolences to Egyptians. Terrible tragedy.

      I fully agree with your comments, and particularly “Security AND Economic Development.” This is a message that, at least in the West, seems never to be absorbed. The US as example today is about to pass a huge tax gift to its wealthiest. Its Middle Class, who will pay the tab is underpaid and shrinking. Here also there will come a time of rebalance one way or, as in the Middle East today, by other means.

    • Nov 24, 2017 @ 19:43 at 19:43
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      Yes, I can give you the root cause without all that hyper crap you spewing..
      It has one main name – ISLAM.

      • Nov 24, 2017 @ 20:41 at 20:41
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        Muhammad is the problem Rape, murder, cutting off heads, worshiping Su’en…

        • Nov 26, 2017 @ 7:23 at 7:23
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          Correction – his teachings have these important pillars: war, enslavement, rape, murder.
          In the rest, he was preaching for the following principles: offense, felony, misdemeanor, misdeed, wrongdoing, kidnapping, criminality, misconduct, villainy, atrocity, abomination, and hijab.

      • Nov 25, 2017 @ 11:34 at 11:34
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        Yes, exactly, it is Islam, stupid!! These people cannot even accept their own minorities and must cannibalize them…so what do you think they have in mind for Christians and Jews (whom they slaughter at every opportunity) all you lovers of endless streams of Islamic economic refugees coming to a city or town near you?

      • Nov 26, 2017 @ 3:55 at 3:55
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        Evil and Moslems go hand in hand.

      • Nov 26, 2017 @ 6:53 at 6:53
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        2017 Malthus Prize first class with gold shovel and real human skull goes to the sociologist Muhammad Muttalib for his works on demographics and solutions for overpopulation published in the years 600.

  • Nov 24, 2017 @ 17:30 at 17:30
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    Since the end of Cold War the world has become the best place to die ever.

  • Nov 24, 2017 @ 20:57 at 20:57
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    …A strange, and tragic historical parallel: like the Russian revolution of 1917, when a small minority
    (the extreme “left” Bolsheviks) hijacked the entire movement, and for the following 80 years the “silent” majority were too frightened to express any objection. Now, the entire, huge Islam religion was hijacked
    by extreme, fanatical minority, and the “silent” Muslim majority are also frightened. Nevertheless, in both cases remaining silent equals abetting – just the same !

  • Nov 24, 2017 @ 21:23 at 21:23
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    that is so called sunni block, lead by Saudi and Israe against iran l

  • Nov 24, 2017 @ 22:13 at 22:13
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    Islam was created by the early Roman Catholics it is not a legitimate religion, it is a fraud. Look it up search Alberto Rivero a Jesuit Priest who was murdered for exposing the Vatican’s secrets.

    • Nov 25, 2017 @ 9:25 at 9:25
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      Pretty silly theory..you would have thought catholism would be spread worldwide

    • Nov 25, 2017 @ 17:08 at 17:08
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      not so. Mohammad is obviously a prophet of Zionist Judaism ESTABLISHED TO usher in the moshiannic age. a prophet who turned against his handlers.

      • Nov 26, 2017 @ 13:44 at 13:44
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        IVaN : You’re a clown ?

    • Nov 26, 2017 @ 17:45 at 17:45
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      Please study History so that you might say your opinions in a more acurrate and educated way.
      Islam was definitly not created by Roman Catholicism. It was inspirend and created only by Muhamad.

  • Nov 25, 2017 @ 18:03 at 18:03
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    It may be said, “They came in vain.”
    Let it not >be< that they came in vain.

    We finished what we could,
    We left the rest for you.

    Remember, this work is entrusted.
    Remember, beloved, we shall meet again.

    — Sufi epitaph

  • Nov 25, 2017 @ 18:41 at 18:41
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    I can not believe how anyone can be proud to be a Muslim. Such killing and hatred between various groups reaches beyond the level of belief, it is a matter of mind control or be killed.

    really disgusting religion.

  • Nov 25, 2017 @ 21:29 at 21:29
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    Having money and a job doesn’t stop hatred, racisim or anti-semitism. As long as people use the name of a “God” to justify brutal human instincts to murder and destroy nothing can change. Generations ago groups of armed men called Crusaders travelled throughout the Middle East pushing Christianity or killing those that would not convert. Now we find ourselves seeing this behaviour from Extremist Muslims. On the other hand the Muslim refugees that left Algeria for France have become a massive problem where the Police and Army will not enter communities throughout the Country. That is a major problem. Religion is the excuse for a lot of bad things in the world in the name of Jesus, the Messiah and Allah. Pure religion can not be deified as an absolute rule by which to live. The problem is the interpretation of it to serve different purposes and that is where we find ourselves today.

  • Nov 26, 2017 @ 2:53 at 2:53
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    you cannot love if you have hate in your heart, this goes for all religions, not just a certain one. Do not try and blame the other one for your mistakes. The one God above is looking down on this madness that is going on here. He will not forget. Remember That.

  • Nov 26, 2017 @ 6:32 at 6:32
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    There is no peace within Islam for the simple reason that they deny the Prince of Peace – Jesus Christ – for who He is – the Son of the living God. Until they accept Christ for who He is, what He has done, and why…muslims will never be at peace with themselves, with their Creator, or with the world in which they live.

    • Nov 26, 2017 @ 13:53 at 13:53
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      They think he’s a “prophet”, but not the Son of God…as God has no children.

      • Nov 26, 2017 @ 16:59 at 16:59
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        In that belief, Islam is entirely correct!

        Extremist Sunni-Salafi DA’ESH, forced out of Syria go to the Sinai, among other lands. Here, and in only a few hours murder over 300 innocent Sunni-Sufi Bedouins who are even less extreme than the Sunni-Kurds. Both butchered by DA’ESH. All of this being a distraction from the aggression of Iran, Turkey. and Russia. in order to control the resource of oil and natural gas, which feeds the energy-hungry, Far-East.

  • Nov 26, 2017 @ 15:13 at 15:13
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    El Sisi is wrong on just one point: These terrorists are not a “small band of extremist terrorists.” They are everywhere and expanding and the only thing which will halt their spread is to challenge the Islamic holy books head on and remove the hate, violence, conquest, sharia and jihad from them.

  • Nov 26, 2017 @ 19:27 at 19:27
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    A G_d would never want man to murder for him, But the true G_o will let this happen because IMHO, G_d is displeased with man, particularly man of the west. (To whom much is given, much will be expected)

  • Nov 28, 2017 @ 9:10 at 9:10
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    If the muslims truly were sick of this carnage and desecration of their religion by these fanatics they could get rid of them in short order. Report them, find those expousing violence and have them incarcerated, hunted down these murderers of inncents and despose of them. If moderates put up with this, they have to accept the consequences. God cannot be mocked, you reap what you sow.

  • Nov 30, 2017 @ 9:39 at 9:39
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    These evil monsters delight in killing the innocent and the good. Those that support and fund them are no better.

Comments are closed.