A man screams beside a bus carrying Coptic Christians which came under attack outside Cairo, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. Islamic militants on Friday ambushed a bus carrying Christian pilgrims on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least seven and wounding a dozen more, the Interior Ministry said.(Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church via AP)
A man screams beside a bus carrying Coptic Christians which came under attack outside Cairo, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. Islamic militants on Friday ambushed a bus carrying Christian pilgrims on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least seven and wounding a dozen more, the Interior Ministry said.(Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church via AP)

Cairo — Islamic militants on Friday ambushed three buses carrying Christian pilgrims on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital of Cairo, killing seven and wounding 19, according to the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Interior Ministry.

All but one of those killed were members of the same family, according to a list of the victims’ names released by the church.

The local Islamic State affiliate which spearheads militants fighting security forces in the Sinai Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the extremist group’s Amaaq news agency.

Though its claim could be not immediately verified, ISIS has repeatedly stated its intention to target Egypt’s Christians as punishment for their support of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. As defense minister, el-Sissi led the military’s 2013 ouster of an Islamist president, whose one-year rule proved divisive. It has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly attacks on Christians dating back to December 2016.

El-Sissi, who has made the economy and security his top priorities since taking office in 2014, tweeted that Friday’s attack was designed to harm the “nation’s solid fabric” and pledged to continue fighting terrorism. He later offered his condolences when he spoke by telephone with Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt’s Orthodox Christians and a close el-Sissi ally.

The attack is likely to cast a dark shadow on one of el-Sissi’s showpieces — the World Youth Forum — which opens today in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and hopes to draw thousands of local and foreign youth to discuss upcoming projects, with Egypt’s 63-year-old leader taking center stage.

Friday’s attack is the second to target pilgrims heading to the St. Samuel the Confessor monastery in as many years, indicating that security measures in place since then are either inadequate or have become lax. The previous attack in May 2017 left nearly 30 people dead. It also is the latest by ISIS to target Christians in churches in Cairo, the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Tanta in the Nile Delta north of the capital.

Those attacks left at least 100 people dead and led to tighter security around Christian places of worship and Church-linked facilities. They also have underlined the vulnerability of minority Christians in a country where many Muslims have since the 1970s grown religiously conservative.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said Friday’s attackers used secondary dirt roads to reach the buses carrying the pilgrims, who were near the monastery at the time of the attack. Only pilgrims have been allowed on the main road leading to the monastery since last year’s attack.

The Interior Ministry maintained that only one bus was attacked, but the latest statement by the church said three buses were targeted and put the death toll at 7 and the wounded at 19, including two in critical condition.

The Interior Ministry said police were pursuing the attackers, who fled the scene.