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Sunday, 6 January 2019

One dead, three injured after explosive device goes off near church

**#6 A policeman was killed on Saturday while trying to defuse a bomb that was found near a church in the district of Nasr City. Two policemen and a passerby were also injured in the explosion, security sources told Reuters. Pope Tawadros offered his condolences after the attack while Azhar condemned it, Youm7 reported. The attack comes two days before Coptic Christians celebrate their Christmas on Monday. Egypt recently set up a committee to confront sectarian violence, in a first of its kind move for the country to admit there’s a problem, Fathiya Al Dakhakhni wrote for Asharq Al-Awsat.

The story has been guiding the conversation on Egypt in the foreign press this morning. Beyond wire pickups of the attack, publications, including the Wall Street Journal (paywall) are suggesting that the event shows the security challenge the government faces to protect Coptic Christians who continue to be targeted by terrorists. The Economist had published a piece prior to the attack highlighting the struggle of Coptic Christians amid continued attacks by Islamists.

The attack also received significant coverage on the airwaves last night, with Amr Adib and Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary also covered the death of a police officer and the injury of another in an explosion near a church late last night (we have the full story in Speed Round, below). Adib called the incident as an example of inter-religious harmony, since an imam is the one who alerted police about the explosive, and the police officer who died trying to dismantle the bomb was a Muslim (watch, runtime 2:55).

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