Terrorism: ISIS PIGS Gunmen in Egypt mosque attack that killed more than 300 carried ISIS flag.

The bomb and gun attack on a Sufi mosque in Egypt's northern Sinai region killed at least 305 people, including 27 children, authorities said, in what amounted to a dramatic increase in the death toll of the Friday attack. At least 128 people were wounded in the massacre that was described as the deadliest terrorist attack in Egypt’s modern history. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, it bore several hallmarks of ISIS attacks. Plus, it took place in an area where Egypt has been battling ISIS insurgents for the past three years.

The horrifically ruthless attack began with a bomb (perhaps from a suicide bomber) inside the crowded mosque, before 25 to 30 gunmen arrived in four off-road vehicles and began firing outside the main door and windows. They also set fire to cars parked outside, making it more difficult to escape, and then attacked the ambulances that began arriving at the scene. Some of the attackers were masked and witnesses claim to have seen at least one Islamic State flag, according to Egypt’s public prosecutor’s office.

Read more: Gunmen in Egypt mosque attack that killed more than 300 carried ISIS flag.

Middle East Egypt: Egypt's shaken Copts mark Good Friday after double bombing

The head of the Coptic Christian Church has led a Good Friday service in the cathedral in Cairo in the aftermath of last Sunday's deadly bomb attacks.

Pope Tawadros II had been in one of the two churches targeted on Palm Sunday when 45 people were killed in attacks claimed by Daesh. Derelicts

Security has been tightened at churches across Egypt and Easter celebrations have been scaled back.
Both suicide bombers were Egyptians, the government said.

A three-month state of emergency was imposed following the bombings in Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta.

The attacks on Christians, who make up about 10% of Egypt's population, raised security fears ahead of a visit to Cairo by Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, scheduled for 28 and 29 April.

Read more: Egypt's shaken Copts mark Good Friday after double bombing - BBC News

Daesh: Germany Probes Possible Islamic State Ties in Ax Attack on Train - by Donna Abu-Nasr and Rainer Buergin

German authorities are investigating if an Afghan refugee, who critically wounded two train passengers in an ax attack on Monday, was part of a terror web after Islamic State claimed it inspired the 17-year-old suspect later shot and killed by police.

Though investigators found a handmade Islamic State flag in the teenager’s room, “no evidence has so far been found on the ground that would suggest he was part of Islamist networks,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said at a televised press conference.

Texts crafted in Pashtu and Latin characters also found appear to indicate someone who “self-radicalized” recently, Herrmann said.

“We have taken note that Islamic State militias have allegedly accepted responsibility over the Internet,” the minister said. The assailant was a "soldier” answering the call to target nations in the coalition fighting Islamic State, according to a statement by the group’s Amaq news agency shared by sympathizers on Twitter.

Read more: Germany Probes Possible Islamic State Ties in Ax Attack on Train - Bloomberg

France-Terrorism; Truck plows in crowd

Media reports: Many dead after truck plows into crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice

Click here for more details

ISIS Foreign Fighters In Syria And Iraq Drop As Islamic State Group Loses Revenue, Ground - by Michael Kaplan

The number of foreign fighters crossing into Syria and Iraq has dropped sharply over the past year amid an intense U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group, Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten told Pentagon reporters. Whereas about a year ago the group was attracting up to 2,000 foreign fighters each month, these days just a fraction of that number is joining, Agence France-Presse reported him as saying.

"Now we have been fighting this enemy for a year, our estimates are down to 200 [per month], and we are actually seeing now an increase in the desertion rates of these fighters," Gersten said. "We are seeing a fracturing in their morale, we are seeing their inability to pay, we are seeing the inability to fight."

The revelation comes the same month Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the total number of fighters with the group, also known as ISIS, has hit its lowest point since the U.S. began keeping track in 2014. Gersten did not offer an estimate for the present size of ISIS’ forces. In the past, it has been placed at between 20,000 and 31,500.

ISIS has reportedly been losing ground and revenue amid bombardment by a U.S.-led coalition. Kurdish and Arab fighters — including governmental and opposition forces — have also been battling the group and have managed to retake key territory. ISIS has lost about 20 percent of the territory it once held in Syria and 40 percent in Iraq, military officials have said.

Much of the anti-ISIS campaign has also focused on targeting the group’s revenue, including oil infrastructure and cash storage facilities. Gersten said as much as $800 million in cash has been blown up.
"We are watching them try to leave Daesh. In every single way, their morale is being broken," Gersten said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Read more: ISIS Foreign Fighters In Syria And Iraq Drop As Islamic State Group Loses Revenue, Ground