Militants Deny Carrying Out Slayings in Egypt
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CAIRO — Egypt’s main Islamist militant group said Saturday that it had nothing to do with an attack Thursday in which gunmen killed 13 people near the southern town of Nag Hammadi.
The Gamaa al Islamiya, or Islamic Group, said in a faxed statement that a branch of the Egyptian security forces might have organized the attack to discredit the Islamists.
Police have said they suspect the Gamaa and have named three Gamaa members they say are suspects.
Nine of the 13 dead were Christians, making the incident the second deadly assault on minority Coptic Christians in southern Egypt in just over a month.
Police also suspect the Gamaa carried out the earlier attack, in which gunmen killed eight young Coptic Christians at a youth meeting in the southern town of Abu Qurqas.
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