Page 10A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
At least 28
killed in
ambush
attack on
Christians
CAIRO (AP) — Masked
gunmen ambushed a bus
carrying Coptic Christians
to a monastery south of
Cairo on Friday, killing at
least 28 people, and Egypt
responded by launching
airstrikes against what it said
were militant training bases
in Libya.
President Abdel-Fattah
el-Sissi announced the
retaliatory action hours after
the bus was riddled with
machine-gun fire on a remote
desert road by suspected
Islamic State militants riding
in three SUVs.
“What you’ve seen today
will not go unpunished. An
extremely painful strike has
been dealt to the bases. Egypt
will never hesitate to strike
terror bases anywhere,”
el-Sissi said in a televised
address to the nation.
He also appealed to U.S.
President Donald Trump to
lead the global war against
terror.
The ambush of the bus
was the fourth deadly attack
against the country’s Chris-
tians since December. The
dead included two little girls,
ages 2 and 4, local officials
said. Twenty-two others were
reported wounded.
Trump, in Italy on his
first trip abroad as president,
blamed the bloodshed on
a “thuggish ideology” and
said it should bring nations
together to crush “evil orga-
nizations of terror.”
Senior Egyptian officials
said fighter jets targeted
bases in eastern Libya of the
Shura Council, an Islamist
militia known to be linked
to al-Qaida, not the Islamic
State. There was no imme-
diate word on damage or
casualties.
The bus attack deepens the
woes of the majority-Muslim
nation, where El-Sissi’s
government is struggling not
only to crush a burgeoning
Islamic insurgency but to
revive the battered economy.
The country’s Christians
have complained that the
government is not doing
enough to protect them
from Islamic extremists, and
hundreds of them reacted
to the bus attack by staging
angry street protests in two
provincial cities, destroying
at least six cars and briefly
cutting off railway lines.
“Either we get retribution
or die like them,” some
chanted.
There was no immediate
claim of responsibility for the
ambush, which came on the
eve of the start of the Muslim
holy month of Ramadan.
But it bore the hallmarks
of the Islamic State, which
has been spearheading an
insurgency that has carried
out deadly attacks in
Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and,
increasingly, on the country’s
mainland.
The Interior Ministry
said the assailants opened
fire as the bus traveled
to the St. Samuel the
Confessor monastery in
Maghagha, about 140 miles
south of Cairo. The Coptic
Orthodox monastery is
reachable only by an
unpaved route that veers off
the main highway.
Security and medical
officials quoted witnesses
as saying they saw eight
to 10 attackers in military
uniforms. They said one of
the assailants’ SUVs got
stuck in the sand, so they
torched it and hijacked a
truck traveling the same
road, killing its occupants.
Arab TV stations showed
images of a bus riddled with
bullet holes, with many of
its windows shattered and
bloodstains on the seats.
Bodies lay on the ground,
some covered with black
plastic sheets. Children could
be heard screaming hysteri-
cally in the background.
The officials, speaking
on condition of anonymity
because they were not autho-
rized to talk to reporters, said
the death toll stood at 28 and
could rise.
The government is likely
to further tighten security
around churches, monas-
teries, schools and pilgrim-
ages to remote Christian sites,
which may be suspended, the
officials said.
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Leery of North Korea, U.S. plans first intercept test
By ROBERT BURNS
AP National Security Writer
WASHINGTON
—
Preparing for North Korea’s
growing threat, the Pentagon
will try to shoot down
an
intercontinental-range
missile for the first time in
a test next week. The goal
is to more closely simulate a
North Korean ICBM aimed
at the U.S. homeland, offi-
cials said Friday
The American interceptor
has a spotty track record,
succeeding in nine of 17
attempts against missiles of
less-then-intercontinental
range since 1999. The most
recent test, in June 2014, was
a success, but that followed
three straight failures. The
system has evolved from
the multibillion-dollar effort
triggered by President
Ronald Reagan’s 1983 push
for a “Star Wars” solution
to ballistic missile threats
during the Cold War —
when the Soviet Union was
the only major worry.
North Korea is now the
focus of U.S. efforts because
its leader, Kim Jong Un,
has vowed to field a nucle-
ar-armed missile capable of
reaching American territory.
He has yet to test an inter-
continental ballistic missile,
or ICBM, but Pentagon offi-
cials believe he is speeding
in that direction.
Marine
Lt.
Gen.
Vincent Stewart, director
of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, said this week that
“left unchecked,” Kim will
eventually succeed.
The Pentagon has a
variety of missile defense
systems, but the one
designed with a potential
North Korean ICBM in
mind is perhaps the most
technologically challenging.
Critics say it also is the least
reliable.
The basic defensive idea
is to fire a rocket into space
upon warning of a hostile
missile launch. The rocket
releases a 5-foot-long device
called a “kill vehicle” that
uses internal guidance
systems to steer into the path
of the oncoming missile’s
warhead, destroying it by
force of impact. Officially
known as the Ground-based
Midcourse Defense system,
the Pentagon likens it to
hitting a bullet with a bullet.
The Pentagon’s Missile
Defense Agency, which is
responsible for developing
and testing the system, has
scheduled the intercept test
for Tuesday.
An interceptor is to be
launched from an under-
ground silo at Vandenberg
Air Force Base in California
and soar toward the target,
which will be fired from a
test range on Kwajalein Atoll
in the Pacific. If all goes as
planned, the “kill vehicle”
will slam into the ICBM-like
target’s mock warhead high
over the Pacific Ocean.
The target will be a
custom-made missile meant
to simulate an ICBM,
meaning it will fly faster than
missiles used in previous
intercept tests, according
to Christopher Johnson,
spokesman for the Missile
Defense Agency. The target
is not a mock-up of an actual
North Korean ICBM.
“We conduct increasingly
complex test scenarios as
the program matures and
advances,” Johnson said
Friday. “Testing against an
ICBM-type threat is the next
step in that process.”
Officials say this is not a
make-or-break test.
While it wasn’t scheduled
with the expectation of an
imminent North Korean
missile threat, the military
will closely watch whether
it shows progress toward the
stated goal of being able to
reliably shoot down a small
number of ICBMs targeting
the United States. The
Pentagon is thirsting for a
success story amid growing
fears about North Korea’s
escalating capability.
“I can’t imagine what
they’re going to say if it
fails,” said Philip Coyle,
senior science fellow at the
Center for Arms Control
and Non-Proliferation. He
headed the Pentagon’s office
of operational test and eval-
uation from 1994 to 2001
and has closely studied the
missile defense system.
“These tests are scripted
for success, and what’s been
astonishing to me is that so
many of them have failed,”
Coyle said.
The interceptor system
has been in place since
2004, but it has never been
used in combat or fully
tested. There currently are
32 interceptors in silos at
Fort Greely in Alaska and
four at Vandenberg, north of
Los Angeles. The Pentagon
says it will have eight more,
for a total of 44, by the end
of this year.
Next for Montana’s new congressman: Day in court, then DC
BOZEMAN,
Mont.
(AP) — Montana’s new
congressman hasn’t even
been sworn into his first
public office, but people are
already talking about his
prospects in 2018 and even
2020.
First things first though
for Greg Gianforte, who has
to deal with a misdemeanor
assault charge he received
the day before the election
after witnesses said he
slammed a reporter to the
ground.
Gianforte could have
appeared in court in
Bozeman on Friday to
Rachel Leathe/Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Greg Gianforte celebrates
his win for an open con-
gressional seat Thursday
in Bozeman, Mont.
resolve the charge but did
not and has a June 7 legal
deadline do so.
He faces a maximum of
6 months in jail and a $500
fine if convicted. It’s rare
for people to serve jail time
for misdemeanors unless
they have serious criminal
records. The Gallatin County
Attorney is also reviewing
the case to see if additional
charges are merited.
Montana Democrats on
Friday quickly called for
Gianforte to not be seated
in Congress until his legal
issues are resolved.
“The people of Montana
deserve to finally have
representation in the U.S.
House,” party chairwoman
Nancy Keenan said in
a statement. “However,
they should not have to be
represented by a man who
is currently facing an assault
charge for body slamming
another person. Greg Gian-
forte should not be sworn in
as a member of the House
of Representatives while his
assault case is still pending
in court.”
There is no legal
impediment to Gianforte
becoming a member of
Congress with a pending
misdemeanor. Republican
Rep. Michael Grimm of
New York, for example,
returned to Congress facing
an indictment for federal
tax fraud and kept his
seat even after he pleaded
guilty, only leaving after
voluntarily resigning. Sen.
Robert Menendez, a New
Jersey Democrat, remains
in the upper chamber while
under federal indictment for
corruption.
It’s also unclear how
quickly
Gianforte
can
assume his seat. Montana has
been without a congressman
since Rep. Ryan Zinke
became secretary of the U.S.
Department of the Interior in
March, creating the vacancy
that sparked the special
election.