New attack on Coptic church in Benghazi
March 15, 2013
A Coptic church in Benghazi has been attacked for the second time in a week. Assailants set fire to the church, which was empty at the time of the attack.
The attack on the church follows the arrest of nearly 100 Egyptian Christians on charges of proselytizing Muslims. One of them, Ezzat Atallah, has died in prison, reportedly from torture.
A Libyan security official, Abdel-Salam al-Barghathi, linked the attack on the church to the Egyptian Christians’ alleged proselytism and to another incident in which Christians in Egypt burned a Libyan flag in front of the Libyan embassy.
“These incidents will take place once and twice if the reactions on the other side continue like this,” he said. Atallah “confessed and we videotaped his confessions. Why do the Christians burn the flag and replace it with a cross?”
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Further information:
- Unknown assailants set fire to church in Libya's Benghazi (Reuters)
- Witnesses: Church torched in eastern Libya (AP)
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