THE Egyptian army has foiled a bid to attack a Coptic church in the Rafah border town with Gaza as the minority Christian community begins celebrating its Christmas, MENA news agency reports.
"Army units foiled an attack against the Rafah church at 1am (1000 AEDT on Monday) and seized a car packed with explosives and weapons near the church," the official news agency said.
Another car carrying masked men sped away as the patrols seized the explosives-packed Toyota vehicle, MENA said.
Egypt's Coptic minority celebrates on Monday its first Christmas under Islamist rule and amid a climate of fear and uncertainty for their future, although President Mohamed Morsi has pledged to be the "president of all Egyptians".
In September, residents and officials reported several Coptic families from Rafah had fled from the Sinai peninsula town that borders the Gaza Strip after receiving death threats from Islamists.
Egyptian security sources suggested, meanwhile, the planned attack could have been aimed at a military camp under construction near the church that has been targeted in the past by Islamist militants.
They said the church has been lying abandoned for the past two years after it was torched in the aftermath of the countrywide uprising that toppled the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the planned attack but one security source said the perpetrators were "probably radical Islamists whom security forces have been tracking for months".
Sinai, a scarcely populated peninsula home to lucrative tourist resorts in the south and shadowy Islamist militants in the north, is a major transit point for arms smuggling to Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas group.
Security in the desert and mountainous region collapsed after the uprising that toppled Mubarak.
Since his downfall, several militant attacks have targeted police and soldiers, including a brazen August 5 ambush on an army outpost that killed 16 soldiers.
The military launched a wide-ranging campaign after that attack to flush out militants, but drive-by shootings have continued.
And on Friday security officials announced the seizure in Sinai of US-made anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles destined for Gaza, where militants have said they would acquire more weapons to use against Israel.
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