Reuters reports that the “Islamic State” has been working in Egypt with an illegal dangerous militant group, the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, The Ansar group has killed hundreds of members of the Egyptian security forces over the last year.
The success of Islamic State in seizing large parts of Syria and Iraq raises great concerns about the Sinai, a region that Egyptian forces have had difficulty in controlling and a region adjacent to Hamas’ Gaza enclave. IS, with
Unlike al-Qaeda, which specializes in hit and run operations and suicide bombings, IS operates as a disciplined army State acts like an army. In Iraq and Syria they have defeated major Arab armies, seizing and holding territory.
Ansar’s affinity for IS extends to its brutality. Four headless corpses were found in the Sinai Peninsula. The radicals claimed credit, accusing the victims of providing Israel with intelligence for an air strike that killed three Ansar fighters.