Top ISIS Commander in Egypt Killed, Reports Confirmed
The top commander for the Islamic State Egyptian branch was reportedly killed by Egyptian army in Sinai Peninsula, according to reports.
Abu Dua Al-Ansari was the original leader of the Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which earlier in October 2015 claimed responsibility for the crash of a Russian commercial airplane over Sinai, claiming the lives of 224 people on the flight. They have also claimed responsibility for the bomb attack that killed Egypt's prosecutor general in Cairo.
Pledged loyalty to ISIS
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The commander's branch pledged loyalty to ISIS last year before becoming a part of the terrorist group's ranks. CBC reported that it was the most active insurgent group in the peninsula, and has repeatedly launched attacks that have killed hundreds of Egyptian militia, far from the international spotlight.
Prior to this, the insurgent group had been waging a war to control the Sinai peninsula and turn it Islamic. As many as 1,500 fighters are in the terrorist group's ranks. They have been launching suicide attacks and gun battles in the northern part of Sinai.
In April, the terrorist group killed at least seven in a roadside blast as part of the insurgency against Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, which they have denounced as a "traitorous coup regime" after special forces killed nine members of the group in Cairo.
What happened in 2014?
Egypt had earlier declared a state of emergency in 2014 to focus its forces on the attacks, which had grown deadlier following the ouster of its Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. This also prompted the US Pentagon to scale back the defenses by about 700 troops, and simply automate the mission through drones and satellite technology.
Presently, ISIS militants have already captured more than 3,000 people out of the 4 millions who have been displaced as they fled conflict zones in Iraq, according to a United Nations report.
On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon had previously expressed his deepest sympathies for the families of victims of ISIS militants.
He also reiterated his "strong condemnation" of ISIS' heinous crimes against the people of Iraq and stressed that they constituted as crimes against humanity.
