It posted photos of corpses lying next to weapons and said IS publications were found with them. At St. George's Church in Tanta, at least 27 Christians were killed and 78 people injured, according to The New York Times, when a suicide bomber slipped past security at the front door of the church and blew himself up.
Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, mourned the "yet another targeted attack" upon Egypt's Christians "during what was meant to be a joyous day of families celebrating Palm Sunday".
In 2010, as the Arab Spring demonstrations were getting stronger, another such church attack by extremists left scores of people dead and wounded.
The shoot-out took place two days after twin bombings targeting the Coptic Christian minority ripped through churches in Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta killing over 40 people.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks in which the number of people killed has reached 45 after a person injured in the bombing at Tanta died. A few hours later, police stopped another suicide attacker from entering the St Mark's Coptic church in Alexandria but he detonated his explosives outside, claiming 17 lives, including several police officers.
Egypt has imposed a state of emergency effective Tuesday after jihadist bombings killed 44 persons at two churches in the deadliest attacks in recent memory on the country's Coptic Christian minority.
"The president also expressed his confidence in president Al Sisi's commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians", the White House said.
British student stabbed to death on tram in Jerusalem
Bladon came to the Hebrew University as part of a student exchange from the University of Birmingham. A spokesperson for Hadassah Hospital said that Bladon died of her wounds two hours after arriving.
A limited state of emergency and nightly curfew in the northern Sinai since 2014 has done little to stem violence there. "This terrorist attack is devoid of all the principles of humanity and civilisation", it said in a statement.
"The United States must continue working with our allies and partners in the global community to bring a swift end to ISIS and these continuing acts of violence across the world", the statement said.
Such concerns had earlier seen the beleaguered community swing behind President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi's 2013 overthrow of elected president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood with the promise he would protect them.
What Egypt needs, he said, are "fair trials, not emergency courts with no appeal, which is mainly what the latest declaration of a state of emergency will give him".
The Palm Sunday attacks, the single deadliest day for Egypt's Christians in decades, prompted messages of support from overseas, including from Pope Francis, who is to visit Egypt on April 28-29.
Jerusalem: Israel closed its Taba border crossing to Egypt yesterday following a warning by its anti-terrorism office of an "imminent" militant attack there. Soon after the announcement, sirens wailed in southern Israel alerting residents to a rocket attack.
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