An unknown Takfiri group has claimed a deadly October 20 ambush that killed at least 16 Egyptian policemen in a statement published Friday on militant extremist social media channels.
The statement purporting to be from a group called Ansar al-Islam — or “Supporters of Islam” — also said one of its leaders, Emad al-Din Abdel Hamid, was killed in Egyptian air strikes after the ambush.
The statement could not be independently verified.
No other group has claimed responsibility for the attack on police last month that saw assailants gun down officers in a shootout between Cairo and the Bahariya oasis in the Western Desert, a rare flare-up outside Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
The military said on October 31 and November 1 that it had tracked and killed all the attackers in desert raids and liberated a police officer taken hostage during the ambush.
Egyptian police have for years been seeking a militant named Emad al-Din Abdel Hamid, a former military officer turned jihadist.
He is believed to have joined a fellow officer, Hisham el-Ashmawy, in Libya following the 2013 military ouster of president Mohammad Mursi.
Ashmawy, who split with an Egyptian Takfiri group that claimed allegiance to the ISIL group in 2014, is thought to be aligned with Al-Qaeda.
Source: AFP
