It has been reported that at least 28 people were killed in Egypt after ten masked gunmen opened fire on a bus full of Coptic Christians. Men, women, and children are those among the dead, while twenty-three others are injured. Egyptian officials are now classifying this as a terror attack.

The bus full of the Egyptian Coptic Christians were driving down an isolated stretch of desert road heading to the St. Samuel the Confessor monastery, about 100km (62 miles) away from the city of Minya.

Hours after the attack happened, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, countered this attack against terrorist camps with airstrikes.

On Friday, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, made a statement in regards to the attack saying that the “merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls.” He then added that, “Wherever innocent blood is spilled, a wound is inflicted upon humanity. But this attack also steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organizations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted, and thuggish ideology.”

This comes after an attack in December on a Coptic Christian church in Cairo and then a twin attack on Coptic churches on Palm Sunday that killed dozens of people. A countless number of Coptic homes and churches have been set ablaze, property has been stolen, and members have been beaten.

It is thought that ISIS was responsible for the attack as they have been targeting Egyptian Coptic Christians in recent years. The persecution and oppression against the Egyptian Coptic Christians has increased ever since Hosni Mubarak’s regime toppled in 2011.

About 10% of Egypt’s population of 91 million, are Coptic Christians. Being a Coptic Christian means that they base their theology on the teachings from the apostle Mark who brought and introduced Christianity to Egypt.