Gunmen killed at least nine people including three police in an attack on a Coptic Christian church south of Cairo on Friday, medical and security sources said.
Prevalent persecution on Coptic communities and extremists attacks. Closing of Coptic churches are evident despite the law on approving building and restoring them.
Twenty-one churches in Egypt's southern rural Minya governorate can rebuild and even expand their churches after receiving approval from the Minya governor, according to World Watch Monitor (WWM).
Up to 300 people were killed when militants targeted worshippers in a coordinated gun and bomb attack on al-Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of Arish city in the Sinai region.