CAIRO - Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has vowed to respond forcefully after attackers killed at least 235 worshippers in a packed mosque in restive North Sinai province, the country's deadliest attack in recent memory.

World leaders have condemned the attack, with Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan saying the "odious and wanton act" violated the sanctity of a place of worship.

Here is a list of some of the biggest attacks in Egypt blamed on Islamists since the late 1990s:

TOURISTS TARGETED

- November 1997: 62 people, including 58 tourists, are killed in an attack on Hatshepsut temple in Luxor claimed by Islamist militant group Jamaa Islamiyya.

- October 2004: Israeli tourists are among 34 people killed in three bombings in the Sinai resorts of Taba and Nuweiba. More than 100 people wounded.

- July 2005: About 70 people are killed in three bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Four groups claim the attacks, including one linked to Al-Qaeda.

- February 2014: Three South Korean tourists and their Egyptian driver are killed in a bombing in the Sinai.

- October 2015: A Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from the south Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh crashes, killing all 224 people on board. The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syrigroup said it downed the aircraft with a bomb.

ATTACKS ON SECURITY FORCES

Militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers in Egypt since the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and an ensuing brutal crackdown on his supporters.

- August 2013: Militants kill at least 25 policemen in the Sinai, the base of many armed Islamist groups.

- October 2014: A suicide car bombing by a suspected militant kills 30 soldiers.

- January 2015: 30 people, mostly soldiers, die in coordinated attacks in the North Sinai claimed by ISIS' Egypt wing.

ATTACKS ON RELIGIOUS MINORITIES

Since December 2016, the local affiliate of ISIS has claimed attacks that have killed more than 100 Coptic Christians. The minority makes up about 10 per cent of Egypt's 90 million people.

- In December 2016, a suicide bomber strikes at a church in Cairo, killing 29 Copts.

- In April 2017, two suicide bombings of churches kill 45 members of the minority.

- In May 2017, ISIS claims responsibility for shooting dead at least 29 Copts as they travel to a monastery.

SOURCE: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE