Palm Sunday church bombings

Egypt has created a "national council" to combat the rise of Islamist "terrorism" which has targeted its security forces and Coptic Christian minority, in a presidential decree issued on Wednesday.

The decree, published in Egypt's official gazette, sets up a "national council to combat terrorism and extremism" by adopting a "global national strategy."

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group on May 27 claimed responsibility for an attack on a bus in central Egypt that killed dozens of Christians, its propaganda arm said.

Gunmen attacked buses and a truck taking a group of Coptic Christians to a monastery in southern Egypt on May 26, killing 26 people and wounding 25 others, witnesses and the Health Ministry said following the latest attack targeting the community by suspected Islamists.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three fourwheel- drive vehicles.

Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital on May 26, killing 24 people and wounding 25, officials said.

Egypt referred 48 people to the country's military judiciary on May 21 for suspected involvement in three deadly church bombings and accused them of joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).