21 Dead, 80 Wounded at New Year's Mass in Egypt; Al-Qaida Suicide Bomber Believed Responsible

The Associated Press website reports today (January 1, 2011) that a powerful bomb -- probably from an al-Qaida suicide attacker -- exploded in front of a Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria, Egypt as a crowd of worshipers emerged from a New Year's Mass early Saturday, killing at least 21 people and wounding 80 others.

The attack came in the wake of threats by al-Qaida militants in Iraq to attack Egypt's Christians.

Nearly 1,000 Christians were attending the New Year's Mass at the Saints Church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, said Father Mena Adel, a priest at the church. The service had just ended, and some worshipers were leaving the building when the bomb went off about a half hour after midnight, he said.

"The last thing I heard was a powerful explosion and then my ears went deaf," Marco Boutros, a 17-year-old survivor, said from his hospital bed. "All I could see were body parts scattered all over -- legs and bits of flesh."