Egypt Identifies Alexandria Church Bomber As Fugitive With Militant Ties

Egypt on Wednesday named the suicide bomber who attacked a cathedral in Alexandria as 31-year-old Mahmoud Hassan Mubarak Abdullah, describing him as a fugitive with links to militant cells that carried out previous strikes in the country.

Abdullah detonated his explosives at the entrance to Saint Mark's Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 17 people as mass was being conducted. Hours earlier, another bomb tore through a church in Tanta, a city in the Nile Delta.

Egypt's government imposed a three-month state of emergency in the wake of the attacks.

The interior ministry said in a statement that Abdullah had been a resident of Suez province and used to work for a petroleum company.

It posted a photograph on its Facebook page of a man it said was Abdullah, placing the image alongside a picture taken by a surveillance camera outside the church.