A mosque attack in al-Rawda, a village…
November 2017 CE
Many of the victims worked at a nearby salt factory and were at the mosque for Friday prayers.
Al-Rawda Mosque, which is located on Sinai's main coastal highway connecting the city of Port Said to Gaza, belongs to the local Jarir clan, of the Sawarka tribe, who follow the Jaririya (Gaririya) Sufi order—an offshoot of the movement of Abu Ahmed al-Ghazawi,of the broader Darqawa order.
The mosque is on the road between El Arish and Bir al-Abed.
The mosque has a smaller zawiyah, a Sufi lodge, attached.
According to local media, attackers in four off-road vehicles planted three bombs; the attackers used the burning wrecks of cars to block off escape routes.
After their detonation, they launch rocket propelled grenades and open fire on worshipers during the crowded Friday prayer at al-Rawda near Bir al-Abed.
When ambulances arrive=d to transport the wounded to hospitals, the attackers open fire on them as well, having selected ambush points from which to target them.
Local residents quickly respond, bringing the wounded to hospitals in their own cars and trucks, and even taking up weapons to fight back.
No group claims responsibility for the attack, although there are reports that the attack appears to be the work of Islamic State's Wilayat Sinai branch.
Islamist militants have been active in the Sinai since July 2013, killing at least one thousand Egyptian security forces personnel.
According to The New York Times, in January 2017 an interview of an insurgent commander in Sinai appeared in issue five of the Islamic State magazine Rumiyah, where the commander condemned Sufi practices and identified the district where the attack occurred as one of three areas where Sufis live in Sinai that Islamic State intended to "eradicate."
The community had been repeatedly threatened to refrain from Sufi practices.
Jund al-Islam, an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group in Sinai who were formerly affiliated with ISIL, declare their innocence and condemn the attack on the al-Rawda mosque.
On November 25, the Egyptian public prosecutor's office, citing interviews with survivors, will say the attackers brandished the Islamic State flag.
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