Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, Egypt’s most dangerous terrorist organisation, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State via a Twitter account associated with the group, on Monday morning.
In an audio clip tweeted by @4Ansar_B_Almqds, the Islamist group based in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula expressed their support of IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and the IS campaign to establish a hardline Sunni caliphate. The statement also encouraged Egyptians to take up arms against the country’s “unjust” government.
The clip continued: “Your unity is strength and your division is weakness… Determine your fate, unite among yourself, and support your [Islamic] State.”
Last week a statement surfaced online claiming that Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (ABM) pledged their allegiance to IS but the group later rejected the veracity of the information, telling news agencies to “check the accuracy of their sources and to stick to ABM’s official statements”.
However, Monday’s statement is believed to be a genuine expression of affiliation to the IS, and was initially reported by Reuters.
Whilst Egyptian authorities believe communication and advice has exchanged between the two Islamist groups previously, this is the first formal declaration that the Egypt-based group subscribes to the same goals as IS and recognizes leader Al-Baghdadi as Caliph.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has achieved notoriety in the country through terrorist tactics similar to those of the Islamic State. In August, the group released a video in which they beheaded four Bedouins from Sinai who they claimed were collaborating with the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
For over a decade the mountainous region of Sinai has been the main hotbed for the country’s terrorist activities, an area where such groups are able to evade the Egyptian security forces.
However, since the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi in 2013, terrorist attacks throughout the country have dramatically spiked and President Sisi has said Egypt faces an “existential threat” from Islamist militants.
On Oct. 24 a suicide car bomb killed 31 soldiers and left scores wounded at a checkpoint near El-Arish, Sinai. On the same day gunmen shot an officer dead and wounded two soldiers at another checkpoint near the town.
Following the attacks, Sinai has been placed under a three-month state of emergency. President Sisi has also ordered the creation of a 500 meter buffer-zone along the Egyptian border with Gaza in an attempt to quash the illegal tunnel trading between Sinai and the Gaza Strip.
According to the Defense Ministry, the tunnels are an important method for “armed Takfiri groups to infiltrate Sinai to supply militants with arms, logistical assistance and shelter after staging their heinous attacks on the Egyptian army.”
Controversially, the Egyptian army gave over 1,100 families who lived within the buffer zone only 48 hours in order to evacuate their houses. North Sinai’s Governor Abdel Fattah Harhour has stated that every family will receive EGP300 (US$40) in housing allowance for three months, and further compensation will be given for demolished buildings. However, tribal leaders from the region have expressed their dissatisfaction with the sums offered.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has condemned the evacuations and stated the group will “take revenge for the people.”
Following ABM’s pledge to IS, Interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif commented to AFP news agency that the news will not change the nature of the Egyptian state’s response to terrorist groups.
“They are just different names for the same terrorists,” Latif said.
By Emir Nader
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