Page 13 - Coptic Churches News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Bring in cnn's ian lee. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. you can see there's extra security today at this coptic church different from the scene yesterday. they said there was a lax security which allowed that bomb to be placed inside. at least 2,000 people were crammed in there for palm sunday service. people said when it exploded one eyewitness said he saw smoke, body parts and his friend was there in front of him. he tried to get him to a hospital but he wasn't able to make it. he showed us his shirt he was holding that had blood all over it. isis claimed responsibility for it. here...

The attacks targeted c ee eed c churches. you can see that man goes into the booth and bloeg hwing himse up. matt, talk to me about what this means for a man to do this on palm sunday in front of coptic churches a inches of two women. >> reporter: it's very important, katie. this has dealt a body blow to the christian community here, the largest christian community in the middle east, so that's about 9 million people. but they're well integrated. you can see them throughout the country and they number among the richest and poorest egyptians here. they overwhelmingly supported the coup that ous...

The death toll in egypt is now up to 49 with isis claiming responsibility for both attacks. they're threatening more violence to come. targeting of two coptic churches marking the important days on the christian calendar. not with just easter a few days away but because pope francis is to visit the country at the end of april so what are officials doing at this time. >> reporter: this is supposed to be a time of celebration, many of them looking forward to the pope's visit at the end of the month. but there's a lot of fear and sorrow, people saying there isn't the security needed across the co...

Strengthen that norm, that rule in international relations because it's clearly gotten weakened over the last four or five years. to use an academic phrase, it's necessary but not sufficient. what syria's been able to get away with russian and iranian help is a war crime on a massive scale. again it, violates another norm, another rule or another set of principles of international relations and there again, i think ultimately the goal has to be protect to lives and see this regime out of power. what we want to do is not sixly stop them from continuing to do what they're doing but accepted a me...

Claiming attack. they are threatening more violence to come. the target of two coptic churches, just a few days away from easter. let's bring in cnn's ian lee. this is only a string of deadly attacks of coptic christians in the country. what is the government doing to protect them? >> reporter: not enough according to christians, they say yes, there's security out in front of churches and there are guards there with ak-47s but say this is just the veneer of security, that they don't provide actual security and say this isn't just unique to tanta or across the country where chris ch christians ...