Major Rakaiby loses his life to thwart Alexandria church bombing

CAIRO–April 9, 2017: “He was always at the front line,” that is what you hear when you ask about Major Emad El-Rakaiby who did not hesitate to jump on the suicide attacker who bombed himself near Saint Mark’s Church Cathedral in Alexandria Sunday afternoon, sacrificing himself in an attempt to prevent the attacker from entering the church to reduce the number of casualties.

According to the Ministry of Interior, the suicide bomber was wearing an explosive belt and intended to break into the church. While being apprehended, the terrorist detonated the bomb at the entrance, killing four security service members and a number of civilians at the gate.

Rakaiby (37 year), a husband and a father of two young kids, was the head of the police forces responsible for securing the Saint Mark’s Church Cathedral in Alexandria.

“RaKaiby had many talks with his colleagues about martyrdom and the honor of dying as a martyr,” an official in the ministry of interior told Egypt Today.

Egyptians woke up this morning on a twin separate blasts striking two Coptic churches; the first targeted Mar Girgis Saint George’s Church in Tanta City, north of Cairo, Sunday Morning, killing 30 people and injuring 71, and the second explosion occurred at near Saint Mark’s Church in Alexandria, leaving six killed and 33 injured.

The two bombings thwarted Coptic Egyptians celebrations of Palm Sunday which commemorates the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem, where he was greeted by cheering crowds bearing palm fronds.

It also marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christians.
This is the second deadly attack targeting of Egyptian Christians in a short period after a bombing at a Cairo church in December last year left 28 dead and more than 40 wounded.

State Security teams and the Prosecutor General headed to Tanta in the morning and are en route to Alexandria to examine the scenes.

Security presence has been tightened around the country’s churches to secure the celebrations, on the first day of Coptic Christians' Holy Week.

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for both attacks, the IS-affiliated Amaq News Agency announced.