REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PARIS -- French President Francois Hollande on Sunday vowed to mobilize his country's forces to support Egypt's combat against terrorism following bombings of Coptic churches.
"Egypt is again struck by terrorists who want to destroy its unity and diversity," Hollande said.
The French head of state also expressed solidarity with Egyptian authorities "in this terrible ordeal" and vowed to "mobilize all forces" to back Egypt's fight against terrorism, according to a statement released by his office, the Elysee.
The terrorist attacks on Sunday that targeted two churches in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria killed at least 44 people and injured over 120 others.
Meanwhile, Morocco strongly condemned the terrorist attacks that targeted on Sunday two churches in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria.
"Terrorism unveils once again its atrocious and criminal face rejected by all religions," Morocco's foreign ministry said in a statement, stressing that the perpetrators of these "ignoble" acts are "infidels who have no connection with the holy Islamic religion and its tolerant principles."
The ministry also offered its condolences to the grieving families and Egyptian people and reiterated its full solidarity with Egypt in countering terrorism.
As the Christian minority worshippers were marking the Palm Sunday in the Muslim-majority state earlier during the day, a blast and a suicide bombing at two churches in Gharbiya and Alexandria province northern Egypt, which killed at least 44 people and injured over 120 others, according to local media.
Sunday's blasts have been claimed by the IS, which also claimed the responsibility for a previous church blast in Cairo in December 2016 that left at least 28 worshippers dead, mostly women and children.
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Egyptian security and political experts said the attacks on Egyptian churches in different provinces are motivated by the decline of the Sinai-based affiliates of the Islamic State militant group in the Sinai Peninsula due to massive security campaigns.
Egypt has been fighting a terrorist wave that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military removed former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and blacklisted his Muslim Brotherhood group as "a terrorist organization."
Mostly claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional militia, the terrorist attacks focused on security forces in restive North Sinai in the beginning, but after massive security raids that killed hundreds of militants and arrested a similar number of suspects, they started to target the Coptic minority in the most populous Arab country.
Egypt's military intelligence chief, Gen. Mohamed Farag al-Shahhat, said during a military-held symposium in February that at least 500 terrorists have been killed since a massive anti-terror campaign, known as "The Martyr's Right," started in September 2015.
The military forces in cooperation with the police have recently announced eliminating terrorists at Central Sinai's Mount Halal area, a part of North Sinai province bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
"Despite the terror blasts, terrorism in Egypt in general and in Sinai in particular is declining, which shows success of the security forces in their anti-terror war, and this is why the terrorist moved to target Copts," said the security expert, noting that there is no such a thing as 100-percent security against a suicide bombing in any state across the world.
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