An Orthodox Christian nun from Mar Girgis Monastery in Old Cairo was killed July 5 after reportedly being hit by a stray bullet in an exchange of fire on the Cairo-Alexandria Highway. A man and his son were also injured in what Egyptian media has described as a “revenge attack” by gunmen.
Nearly a week after the tragic incident, little is known about the circumstances of the nun’s death and the identity of the assailants remains undisclosed. To stave off skepticism, local media have said that this was not a sectarian attack and that the nun had not been deliberately targeted. ”She was caught in the crossfire,” the semi-official Al-Ahram reported a day after the attack.