Khosous district prosecutors in Qalyubiya Governorate received the initial forensic report on victims of bloody clashes that took place there Friday, which left a Muslim and four Copts dead, and seven others injured.
The report said the four Copts were killed by bullets from automatic weapons. The bullets went through the bodies of three victims, while the bullet remained in the fourth victim’s body. Forensics specialists seized the bullet to determine its make.
The bullets were shot from above, downward, and penetrated the victims in the head, face or heart, according to the report.
The four Coptic victims were Marsouq Atteya, Morkos Kamal, Victor Manqarios and Essam Zakhary. Atteya was shot in the face, Kamal in the heart, Manqarios in the head, and Zakhary in the face and shoulders.
A priest in Khosous said Saturday that the violence in Khosous was rooted in a dispute between a Muslim family and Christian family that dated back three months.
He said the problem was resolved, but renewed when a group of Salafis harassed a Christian woman.
“Some sheikhs incited against Copts and the church in public at mosques,” Priest Suriel of Mar Girgis Church in Khosous said. “Security troops arrived late, and clashes took place in their presence.”
Masked attackers also reportedly burned the Mar Girgis nursery, as well as a Baptist church, several stores and a home belonging to Copts.
After the Khosous events, another attack took place during a funeral for the Coptic victims in Abbasseya, Cairo. Unknown assailants attacked funeral mourners, leading to clashes that continued on and off late Sunday night.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
