The Egyptian military has killed the head of the Sinai branch of so-called Islamic State (IS), along with dozens of its fighters. The air strikes were targeted at jihadist strongholds near the town of El-Arish. Abu Duaa al-Ansari, head of the Islamic State’s Sinai branch was killed in a series of air strikes on fighters of the Sinai Province – or Ansar Beit al-Maqdis – group.
The Egyptian military said: “The raids left more than 45 terrorists killed, dozens of others injured and several arms caches destroyed.” Brig-Gen Mohammed Samir said in a posting on Facebook that Ansari was killed in an operation guided by “accurate intelligence”.
“A US government estimate says that ISIS in Sinai only has several hundred fighters, so if they Egyptian security forces have killed 45 of them in one blow, that would be a major defeat [to the armed group],” Aaron Reese, a security analyst who specialises in Egypt’s Sinai said.
“But the Egyptian government has announced major defeats like this before, and they have not affected ISIS’s operational capacity. So I’m not sure there would be a decline in attacks by ISIS.”
By Premji
