Egyptian Army seizes Islamist-held town where Christians were under heavy oppression

ARUTZ SHEVA – The Egyptian army stormed the town of Dalga in central Egypt, 190 miles south of the capital Cairo, which has been controlled by Islamist radicals for more than two months.

Islamists seized the town as part of a backlash against the military-backed ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi. Twice the army attempted to retake the town, but the heavily-armed Islamists managed to repel their advance on both occasions.

However, following repeated appeals for help by the town’s residents – in particular its Coptic Christian population – the army successfully retook the town on Monday. This time, according to eye-witnesses, there was little to no resistance from local Islamists, as a sizable force of soldiers and police moved in, backed by military helicopters.

Approximately 20,000 of the town’s 120,000 residents are members of the Coptic Christian community, an ancient community which predates the Arab invasion and spread of Islam in northern Africa. Copts make up around 10% of the Egyptian population, and have long complained of discrimination. Since the ouster of Morsi, his Islamist supporters have escalated a campaign of extreme violence against Egypt’s Christian community – essentially scapegoating them for their loss of power to the largely secular military-backed interim government.