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ISIS beheads 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya
The Islamic State has issued a video that purports that 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded today in Libya after their kidnappings. Reuters is reporting, “Egypt's state news agency MENA quoted the spokesman for the Coptic Church as confirming that 21 Egyptian Christians believed to be held by Islamic State were dead.” According to Aljazeera.com the killings were directed at "the hostile Egyptian Church" and were in revenge for "Muslim women persecuted by Coptic crusaders in Egypt." Those who died had been all abducted from the Libyan town of Sirte in recent months. On Saturday, Egypt announced that a second group of 21 Egyptians have also been kidnapped from Misrata, Egypt.
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi immediately called an urgent meeting of the country's top security body and declared seven days of mourning. Al-Azhar, the prestigious Cairo-based seat of Islamic learning, denounced the "barbaric" killings. Al-Azhar also stated that when he heard of the beheadings of those kidnapped, "the innocent Egyptians with great sorrow and grief". The statement went on to say,” Al-Azhar stresses that such barbaric action has nothing to do with any religion or human values.”
In the video that was released today is entitled "A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross". The video has a scrolling caption in the first few seconds referring to the hostages as "People of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian Church". The speaker in a black mask speaking English tells his audience "Today we are in the south of Rome, in the land of Islam Libya... the sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood." Then finished with “We swear to Allah we will take revenge, even if it takes a while."
According to sources who witnessed the kidnappings on January 4th, “that black-clad militants had entered their living quarters in the middle of the night, carrying a list of named Christians.” Family members hiding in other bedrooms were surprised that the militants left after kidnapping the allotted number of people, 21.
