The Islamic State claimed the murder of Coptic Christian priest Raphael Musa today in Sinai, Egypt.
The Coptic priest was shot several times in the head.
Foreign Dest reported:
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for shooting to death a Coptic priest in Egypt Thursday.
Father Raphael Musa, the priest of St. George Church in El-Arish in the northern Sinai was returning from mass Thursday when he was shot in the head multiple times by an unknown assailant, according to local police.
Shortly thereafter, ISIS claimed responsibility for the killing in an online post accusing Musa of “waging war against Islam.”
Egypt is battling the Islamic State in the Sinai by the group’s local affiliate, Wilyat Sinai, considered one of ISIS’s most brutal.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has described the group as ‘existential threat’ to Egypt’s national security interests. In April, the U.S. reportedly considered moving some of its 700 troops currently stationed in the Sinai Peninsula.
