Libya: Christians abducted - for Islamists they are 'legitimate targets'
Twenty Egyptian Copts were taken from their homes in the city of Sirte last week. In the same city, a few days earlier, an Egyptian Copt couple and their teenage daughter were killed. The abductions have triggered reactions in Egyptian society and in the Coptic Church.
A delegation of tribal Egyptian leaders has traveled to Libya to start negotiations with local tribal leaders in an effort to obtain the release of the hostages. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has phoned Coptic Patriarch Tawadros II "to ensure that institutions and Egyptian apparatuses are permanently mobilized for a rapid release of the abducted Copts."
Hussein Haridi, former assistant of the Foreign Ministry told Egyptian media that armed gangs of the Libyan Islamist Ansar al-Sharia network consider Egyptian Copts living in Libya as "legitimate targets".
Source: Fides