Christians in Egypt prepare to bury dead a day after attack

Coptic Christians in the Egyptian town of Minya prepared to bury their dead on Saturday, a day after militants ambushed three buses carrying Christian pilgrims on their way to a remote desert monastery, killing seven and wounding 19.

A priest and members of a Christian congregation prayed and chanted over a row of white coffins ahead of a funeral service for the dead. All but one of those killed were members of the same family, according to a list of the victims' names released by the church, which said a boy and a girl, ages 15 and 12 respectively, were among the dead.

The local Islamic State group affiliate, which spearheads militants fighting security forces in the Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for the attack south of Cairo in a statement. It said the attack was revenge for the imprisonment by Egyptian authorities of "our chaste sisters" without elaborating.

The IS affiliate claimed that 13 Christians killed and another 18 wounded, but it was not immediately possible to independently verify the claim or reconcile the discrepancy in the number of dead and wounded given by the group and the church.

The attack was likely to cast a dark shadow on one of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's showpieces the World Youth Forum which opens Saturday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and hopes to draw thousands of local and foreign youth to discuss upcoming projects, with Egypt's 63-year-old leader taking center stage.

The Islamic State has repeatedly vowed to go after Egypt's Christians as punishment for their support of el-Sissi.

As defense minister, el-Sissi led the military's 2013 ouster of an Islamist president, whose one-year rule proved divisive.

It has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly attacks on Christians dating back to December 2016.

El-Sissi, who has made the economy and security his top priorities since taking office in 2014, wrote on his Twitter account that Friday's attack was designed to harm the "nation's solid fabric" and pledged to continue fighting terrorism.

He later offered his condolences when he spoke by telephone with Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt's Orthodox Christians and a close el-Sissi ally.

In a somber message of his own, Tawadros said in a video clip released by the church that the latest attack would only make the Christians stronger.

"I think that this is a terrorist act which is targeting Egypt through playing the card of the Copts," said Begemy Nassem Nasr, priest of the church of St Mary in Minya.

"We know that ... President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is hosting the youth forum and they meant to embarrass him."