Tanta

Gunmen attacked buses and a truck taking a group of Coptic Christians to a monastery in southern Egypt on May 26, killing 26 people and wounding 25 others, witnesses and the Health Ministry said following the latest attack targeting the community by suspected Islamists.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three fourwheel- drive vehicles.

Egypt referred 48 people to the country's military judiciary on May 21 for suspected involvement in three deadly church bombings and accused them of joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

TANTA, Egypt—Like the Jews before them, Christians are fleeing the Middle East, emptying what was once one of the world’s most-diverse regions of its ancient religions.

They’re being driven away not only by Islamic State, but by governments the U.S. counts as allies in the fight against extremism.

Security at the three official Coptic Orthodox churches in Athens - in Polygono, Menidi and Kypseli - has been increased in the wake of two attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt on Sunday that left dozens dead.

The suicide bombings at the churches in Alexandria and Tanta on Palm Sunday left 44 dead. The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a three-month state of emergency following twin church bombings by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that killed at least 44 people on Palm Sunday, April 9, the deadliest attacks on the minority in recent memory.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for bombing two Egyptian churches as worshippers gathered to mark Palm Sunday, killing at least 38 people in the deadliest attacks on the Coptic Christian minority in recent memory.