Egypt's Islamic State affiliate claims rocket attack on naval boat

Smokes rises from an Egyptian coastguard vessel on the coast of northern Sinai, as seen from the border of southern Gaza Strip with Egypt July 16, 2015

The Islamic State's Egypt affiliate, Sinai Province, has claimed responsibility for Thursday's missile attack on a naval boat off the Mediterranean coast of Egypt.

The Egyptian army said in a statement earlier that the patrol boat was chasing militants off the coast of Rafah, a town in North Sinai, and had exchanged gunfire with them. The boat caught on fire as a result, but the incident left no fatalities, the military said.

Sinai Province released a statement saying its jihadists had carried out a rocket attack on a naval vessel belonging to the "apostasy army" in the eastern Mediterranean.

The volatile North Sinai region, where Rafah is located, is an epicenter of a mounting Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of members of the security forces since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Earlier in July, 21 soldiers were killed after simultaneous militant assaults on army checkpoints in the North Sinai towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, prompting days-long fighting between troops and insurgents that left over 200 militants killed.

On Wednesday, the army said its troops foiled a suicide car bomb attack on a military post between Cairo and Suez. This attempt was also claimed by Sinai Province, Egypt's most lethal militant group.

Egypt's Islamic State affiliate claims rocket attack on naval boat

Smokes rises from an Egyptian coastguard vessel on the coast of northern Sinai, as seen from the border of southern Gaza Strip with Egypt July 16, 2015

The Islamic State's Egypt affiliate, Sinai Province, has claimed responsibility for Thursday's missile attack on a naval boat off the Mediterranean coast of Egypt.

The Egyptian army said in a statement earlier that the patrol boat was chasing militants off the coast of Rafah, a town in North Sinai, and had exchanged gunfire with them. The boat caught on fire as a result, but the incident left no fatalities, the military said.

Sinai Province released a statement saying its jihadists had carried out a rocket attack on a naval vessel belonging to the "apostasy army" in the eastern Mediterranean.

The volatile North Sinai region, where Rafah is located, is an epicenter of a mounting Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of members of the security forces since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Earlier in July, 21 soldiers were killed after simultaneous militant assaults on army checkpoints in the North Sinai towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, prompting days-long fighting between troops and insurgents that left over 200 militants killed.

On Wednesday, the army said its troops foiled a suicide car bomb attack on a military post between Cairo and Suez. This attempt was also claimed by Sinai Province, Egypt's most lethal militant group.

In Video : (Graphic Warning +18 Adults Only) Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis Terrorists abduct and kill Egyptian Policeman

Terrorists Release Video Showing ‘Execution’ Of Egyptian Policeman



Egypt’s deadliest militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis released on Sunday a video showing the abduction and killing of a police officer earlier in Sinai.

The militant group released a video on a twitter account believed to belong to it where it shows gunmen capturing and killing a man who identified himself as police officer Ayman al-Desouki.
 

 
Desouki said in the video that it was Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis who abducted him. In the video, Desouki is apparently hardly forced to list “abuses” by the Ministry of Interior against prisoners.



Desouki being kidnapped at a ‘militant checkpoint’

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped Desouki on January 11; he worked at the Rafah border-crossing. Desouki’s body was found by the armed forces in North Sinai two days later, with two gunshots to the head.

Armed forces spokesman Mohamed Samir accused “terrorist elements” of killing the officer, in a statement announcing Desouki’s death, released on January 13.

The Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which changed its name to Sinai Province since pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria in November 2014, has claimed responsibility for several militant attacks committed since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.



The group claimed responsibility for an attack on a security checkpoint in Sinai in October 2014 which rendered over 30 security personnel killed.

Militants in North Sinai have recently engaged in the kidnap and execution of Sinai residents whom they accuse of cooperation with security apparatuses.