MOI : Egypt's security forces kill 9 'terrorists' during raid in 6 of October city

Egypt's security forces investigate the site of an explosion in Six of October district in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Egyptian security forces on Wednesday killed nine members of the Muslim Brotherhood during a raid on their hide-out apartment in the western Cairo suburb of 6 of October city, the interior ministry said.

The  ministry said in a statement on Wednesday night that police had received intelligence information that the group was planning to carry out "terrorist" attacks around the date of the second anniversary of the 30 June mass protests which led to the overthrow of ousted Mohamed Morsi.

The officers shot the men after they opened fire on them while attempting to escape, Giza deputy security director Magdy Abd El-Aal had told told Ahram Arabic news website earlier in the evening.

The now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, which has been blamed by the government for orchestrating terrorist attacks against security forces in the last two years, denied that the men were armed.

The deadly raid came hours after militants from the Islamic State group killed dozens of soldiers and civilians in wide-scale simultaneous assaults on several military checkpoints in Egypt's North Sinai, and two days after the assassination  of the country's top prosecutor in a car bombing in Cairo.

Sisi cuts short AU visit after Sinai attacks kill at least 30

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will cut short his visit to Ethiopia and return to Egypt on Friday, following a series of militant attacks in North Sinai on Thursday night that left at least 30 people dead.

El-Sisi was in Addis Ababa to attend the 24th African Union summit meeting. He will return to Cairo after attending the opening session,  state-run news agency MENA reported.

 A photo from the 24 October 2014 attacks in North Sinai which killed 32 army soldiers

A series of deadly militant attacks involving mortar attacks and car bombs targeted several military and police sites in North Sinai on Thursday. Medical and security sources estimated the dead at 30, including several civilians.

Exact figures for casualties have yet to be announced by officials. The health ministry’s North Sinai undersecretary, Tariq Khater, told on Friday morning that he is not authorised to reveal the figures due to the military nature of the incidents.

Reuters quoted security sources as saying that military planes had left Sinai on Friday morning carrying thirty body bags. The sources also reportedly said that five men were critically injured and that the death toll was expected to rise.

According to Reuters, medical sources said that two children had been killed in Thursday’s violence. 

Following the attack, the armed forces said in a statement that the violence came in response to the "successful" security campaign against militants in the restive province, without elaborating further on the number killed.

Attacks by militant groups based in North Sinai have spiked since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, with security forces particularly targeted. The armed forces have responded by waging a military campaign aimed at eradicating militants from Sinai.

Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks on an affiliated Twitter account.

The group, which has said it is behind a number of attacks in the peninsula, recently pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), the militant group which controls large swathes in Iraq and Syria.  

A security source told that the army have responded to Thursday’s attacks by starting wide military offensives throughout North Sinai, targeting terrorist hideouts using Apache helicopters and un-manned planes.

The deadly attacks came only days after Egypt had marked the fourth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution which ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The anniversary had been marked by increased tensions nationwide; a series of improvised bombs went off across the country over the last week, mainly targeting railroad tracks and electricity pylons, while 23 people died in violent clashes with police on the day of the anniversary.

The US has condemned Thursday’s violence. "The United States remains steadfast in its support of the Egyptian government’s efforts to combat the threat of terrorism in Egypt," an official statement read.

Breaking News : : Army Kidnapped Egyptian police captain in Sinai found dead

Ayman El-Desouki was kidnapped while travelling on a bus in North Sinai on Monday



 Kidnapped police captain Ayman El-Desouki was found dead on Tuesday in the restive Sinai Peninsula, Egypt's army announced in a statement.

A military spokesperson described the killing as "cowardly."

"We extend our deep condolences to the family of the late policeman, and we stress that such incidents increase our determination to fight all kinds of terrorism in Egypt," the statement read.

El-Desouki, an officer in the ports security division, was on a bus in North Sinai on Monday when alleged members of militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis(ABM)  – who had set up a checkpoint – searched the bus and took him to an unknown location.

Egypt`s general prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, imposed on Monday a gag order on the incident because the matter was still being investigated.

ABM, which has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks, including the killing of 30 army personnel in October, pledged allegiance to Islamic State last November.

Egypt’s security forces have been facing a decade-long jihadist insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula, with militant attacks increasing over the past 18 months and expanding into Cairo and the Nile Delta, killing hundreds of army and police personnel.

#Egypt's Al-#Azhar head blames "enemies' plot" for rising militancy

Ahmed El-Tayyeb's remarks came on opening session of Al-Azhar-sponsored international conference to fight terrorism

Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Egyptian Imam of al-Azhar Mosque

Head of Egypt's top Sunni Islamic institute, Al-Azhar said on Wednesday he wished the West would experiment their weapons in the desert instead of the bodies and property of the Arabs, as he gave the opening remarks for an international terrorism-fighting conference.

Egypt is part of the international coalition to fight terrorism, with high expectations from the international community about the significance of its role in fighting radical religious thought and spreading moderate Islamic teachings through its Al-Azhar organisation.

Ahmed El-Tayyeb said a variety of political, societal and religious reasons stand behind the rising wave of militancy across the Middle East, but the "enemies' plot" could be a main cause.

"The plot plays on the sectarian and racial tension along with providing these parties with weapons," he said.

"I just wish the arms factories in the west would experiment with their weapons and their efficiency in the desert instead of the bodies and the installations of Arabs."

The two-day conference, sponsored by Al-Azhar, was attended by Egypt's Coptic Pope, 600 Muslim clerics and heads of Christian churches from 120 countries.

The conference comes at a time when militant groups are gaining cross-border alliances.

Earlier in November, Egypt's leading Sinai-based group, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis swore allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, which has claimed control over large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Other militant groups across the region, including in Libya, also pledged loyalty to IS, allegedly led by Iraqi militant Abu-Bakr Al-Boghdadi.

El-Tayyeb on Wednesday said the plots aim at "keeping Israel the strongest and richest country in the region."

He spoke of the US invasion of Iraq being predicated on "fabricated reasons" as part of a plot to break up the Iraqi army, one of the strongest in the region at the time. He added that fighting and divisions have spread to Syria, Libya and Yemen.

"God only knows when the war machine will be silenced in these stricken countries and when they will take their own decisions without regional and international pressure or interferences," he said.

The conference comes as part of the campaign by Egypt clerics and moderates to brush off the extremist image of Islam, increasingly exported by militant activity.

"ISIS attempt to export their vision of their new beguiled religion that came to people with slaughter, beheading and forced exile for those who disagree with it," El-Tayeb said. He condemned their brutality as "barbaric crimes" with the cover of Islam.

"This confrontation requires exporting moderate religious speech, which will set aside religion from the circle of manipulation...that threatens the society's safety and the nation's unity," top Lebanese Shia cleric Aly Al-Amin said.

Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II, also giving opening remarks, stressed that Christianity calls for love, acceptance and peacefulness among one another.

Egypt's Christians, who make up nearly 10 percent of the population, have long complained of the discrimination and the waves of sectarian strife that occasionally soar for different, especially in the south of the country.

"We pray every day for the city we're living in, for our neighbors, our borders, the president, the army and the government," Tawadros said. "The Egyptian church has always lived patriotically, and never claimed a timely authority."

#John_Kerry hosts first #anti-Islamic State coalition meeting

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a round table meeting of the global coalition to counter the Islamic State militant group at NATO headquarters in Brussels December 3, 2014 

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday hosts the first high-level meeting of the 60-member coalition trying to crush the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and in Syria.

Kerry, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and foreign ministers from European, Arab and other countries will meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels to discuss the best military strategy against the group, officials said.

But they will also look at how to stem the flow of foreign fighters and delegitimise the powerful IS "brand," that has drawn jihadists from several Western countries, the officials added.

"This is the end of the beginning of the formation of the coalition. This is where the coalition comes together," a senior State Department official told reporters with Kerry.

The United States launched the first strikes against IS in Iraq in August. In late September the strikes were extended to IS targets in Syria, involving both the United States as well as a number of allies.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain are taking part in the air strikes in Syria and Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and the Netherlands are participating in Iraq.

Separately, the Pentagon Tuesday confirmed for the first time that Iran recently carried out air strikes against IS in eastern Iraq.

The threat posed by IS has brought the two arch-foes together in the fight against the jihadists but Washington said the Iranian raids were not coordinated with US forces.

The United States has carried out the vast majority of the air strikes against the jihadists who proclaimed a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in June.

Dozens more countries are offering other support including information and intelligence sharing.

Kerry on Tuesday did not rule out providing more aid to the Iraqi government. "I'm confident that over a period of time the United States will be providing additional assistance of one kind or another," he said.

Officials said the ministers will tackle how to disrupt IS finances and how to provide humanitarian aid to displaced people in Iraq and Syria.

The senior US official said the coalition partners are particularly concerned about the threat posed by thousands of foreign fighters who have joined IS and who could launch attacks in the West.

"It may be in fact one of the longest term problems that we'll ultimately face with respect to ISIS in this region," he said, using the group's alternate name.

Washington was working with European and Gulf Arab states about tightening borders and establishing no-travel lists, he added.

Coalition partners, he said, are due to meet in Marrakesh, Morocco on December 15 to further tackle the foreign fighters problem.

NATO has allowed its headquarters to be used for Tuesday's talks because foreign ministers from the transatlantic alliance met there on Tuesday, but NATO is not part of the US-led coalition against IS.

The ministers will discuss ways to send "counter-messages" to delegitimise IS, which has been savvy in using social media to recruit fighters and supporters over the Internet.

"As we are able to delegitimise (IS), we are able to turn populations against (IS), reduce their recruiting basis," he added.

The ministers will study ways to disrupt how IS raises finances through oil sales, extortion, plunder, ransom, human trafficking and the sale of Syrian antiquities, he said.

"We're working hard to map the oil system," he said, adding the coalition is tracking oil from the ground, to refineries, to black markets through tankers crossing borders, to the sources of cash and then banks.

Air strikes on refineries are undermining the IS ability to export the oil, and thereby raise funds, he said.

"We're just kicking off on many of these things. And what we're beginning to see already there is some effect that's beginning to become apparent."

The official said based on intelligence estimates there are around 30,000 IS fighters in both Syria and Iraq.