Cairo-The Egyptian army spokesman, Mohammed Samir, announced on Thursday that the leader of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis was killed in North Sinai in a security operation that also left more than 45 “terrorists” dead and dozens injured.
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Abu Duaa al-Ansari – who planned the attack on MetroJet flight 9268 over Sinai – has been killed in the air strike, the Egyptian military has confirmed.
The Egyptian military says its strikes were aimed at Sinai Province’s strongholds near the town of El Arish, northern Sinai.
The Egyptian army has been fighting an Islamist insurgency for almost a decade, but since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013, the insurgency in the Sinai peninsula has grown deadlier.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem) changed its name to Sinai Province after it pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014. Stores of weapons, ammunition, and explosives were also said to be destroyed during the operation.
Despite a massive military campaign to uproot ISIL from the Sinai, the group has kept up attacks with roadside bombs and ambushes. In a new propaganda video, ISIS vows to overrun the Italian capital and launch attacks on the Jewish state.
Later that year the interior ministry announced the killing of top IS operative Ashraf Ali Hassanein al-Gharabli suspected of involvement in the abduction and murder of the Croatian and the bombing of the Italian consulate.
Hundreds of soldiers and policemen have been killed by an insurgency since mid-2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al Sisi ousted Mr Morsi following mass protests.
The group claimed the downing in October 2015 of a Russian passenger jet in the Sinai, few minutes after taking off from the Red city of Sharm el-Sheickh.
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Egyptian authorities have all but banned media access to northern Sinai, with the local press relying nearly entirely on statements put out by the army and police, briefly reporting on their casualties.
