Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Egypt said Saturday attackers who massacred Christians near a monastery had trained in militant camps in Libya which it targeted with air strikes, after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

The air force loyal to Egypt-backed Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar said it had joined the Egyptian air strikes on Friday following the attack on Copts that killed 29 people.

But the only confirmed strikes appear to have hit a pro-Al-Qaeda group in the Libyan city of Derna that has fought against ISIS.

ISIS said on Saturday that its fighters had ambushed the Christians as they were travelling to the Saint Samuel monastery in Egypt’s southern province of Minya.

The shooting was the latest in a series of attacks by ISIS that have killed more than 100 Copts since December.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told his US counterpart Rex Tillerson that the extremists who attacked the Christian convoy had trained in Libyan militant camps.

“There was enough information and evidence of the terrorist elements involved in the (attack) having trained in these camps”, a foreign ministry statement quoted him as saying.

*AFP