CAIRO - The death toll from a New Year's Day bombing outside a church in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria has risen by two to 23, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported yesterday although some other official reports put the deaths only at 18. The MENA report on the total and final death toll of the Al-Qiddisein Church bombing was challenged by a Health Ministry official who put the victims at only 18 Christians. "The death toll is only 18. All were Copts," Abdel Rahman Shahin, a spokesman for the Health Ministry was quoted as saying. Shahin added that there were still three unknown bodies, who are expected to include the suicide bomber. MENA, however, had quoted church sources as saying that the death toll reached 23 after two of the injured passed away late on Monday, naming one of the dead as Sabri Fawzi Weissa. The Health Ministry had said earlier that there were three Muslims among the deaths. According to the Government, nearly half of the 97 injured - which included Muslim bystanders - have been released from hospitals. No clear official account has emerged of how the attack was carried out but analysts point to a small cell, not a larger militant group like those behind an Islamist insurgency that flared up more than a decade ago. National unity marches continue In Cairo University, the nation's oldest and biggest public university, hundreds of students, lecturers and employees spearheaded by president of the university Hossam Kamel held a march inside the campus, raising banners to condemn terrorism and urge national unity. "Our hearts were shocked by this terrorist act in the Alexandria church as we declare our support and solidarity with our Coptic brethren," Kamel told reporters during the march.
