Two policemen were killed and two others injured Tuesday in a fresh militant attack in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula, according to a local security source.

A police vehicle struck a roadside bomb as it was passing in North Sinai’s city of Sheikh Zuweid, the source said anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media.

Egyptian authorities have yet to comment on the attack, for which no group has yet claimed responsibility.

Northern Sinai has seen an uptick in militant attacks in recent days in which dozens of soldiers were killed.

Since mid-2013, when Mohamed Morsi — Egypt’s first freely-elected president — was ousted in a military coup, hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have been killed in Sinai amid an ongoing militant insurgency.

Egyptian security forces, meanwhile, have continued to wage a fierce campaign, involving elements from both the police and army, against what they describe as Sinai-based “terrorist groups”.

Egypt’s army-backed authorities say they are battling the “Welayat Sinai” (“Province of Sinai”), which is said to have links to the Daesh terrorist group.

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The Lebanese army bombed militant posts in the outskirts of three eastern border towns, inflicting heavy casualties on Daesh, state-run National News Agency reported.

The agency said the army “fired heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers at the posts of the militants in the outskirts of al-Qaa and Ras Baalbek after detecting suspicious movements.”

In the evening, NNA said the army was still bombarding militant posts and gatherings in the outskirts of Arsal, Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa, and that the sounds of shelling were echoing across Hermel and the neighboring towns.

“A large number of militants from the terrorist IS (Daesh) group have been killed and wounded,” the agency added.

Five people were killed and 28 others were wounded in late June when eight suicide bombers attacked al-Qaa, a mainly Christian town, in two waves.

Militants from Daesh and Fateh al-Sham Front — formerly al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate al-Nusra Front — are entrenched in areas along the undemarcated Lebanese-Syrian border and the army regularly shells their posts while Hezbollah and the Syrian forces have engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border.

The two groups briefly overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal in August 2014 before being ousted by the army after days of deadly battles.

The retreating militants abducted more than 30 troops and policemen of whom four have been executed and nine remain in Daesh’s captivity.

albawaba.com

The Egyptian army reportedly killed 19 gunmen believed to be affiliated to the Sinai Province group, after airstrikes hit more than 30 of the group’s bunkers and hideouts on Monday afternoon, according to Egyptian security sources.The sources told Ma’an that the Egyptian army began a major crackdown against armed groups in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Monday morning, shortly after six Egyptian soldiers were killed by the group.

Later Monday afternoon, an Egyptian army officer and a police officer were also killed by the group.The army officer was killed in clashes with gunmen, while the police officer was shot in the head after leaving his house in al-Arish city in the northern Sinai, where most of the violence has been taking place.Egyptian security sources identified the police officer as Ayman al-Murshidi, 35.

His body was taken to a military hospital in al-Arish.Egyptian military and police forces have been the target of ongoing attacks, which have increased since Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi took power from democratically-elected Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.The Egyptian president came under attack following his violent suppression of Muslim Brotherhood members following his rise to power, which Sisi has argued is necessary to deter future attacks in the Sinai and across Egypt.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the militant group responsible for a majority of attacks on military personnel, aligned with the Islamic State (ISIS) group in November 2014, changing its name to Sinai Province.

maannews.com

The Presidential Guard said on Sunday the Libyan political agreement signed in Skhirat, Morocco, was reached to reinstate the military rule after four decades of dictatorship, confirming it will now back the General National Congress.

In a statement read from the parliament building, the PG indicated that the UN-installed Presidency Council has failed to provide basic needs of people and win the Libyan consensus while security and economic crises have deepened since its arrival in Tripoli.

“We agreed with other revolutionary brigades to restore legitimacy to the GNC, the only legitimate authority in Libya after the Supreme Court ruling in November 2014.” The statement said.

Meanwhile, the High Council of State has vowed to arrest the defected members of the Presidential Guard while council member Abdul-Rahman Al-Shatar confirmed the council is still operating and it would relocate in another HQ to implement the political agreement.

The Head of Investigation Bureau at the Office of the Attorney General Siddiq Al-Soor has also issued an arrest warrant for the defected members of the Presidential Guard, similar to the one issued for renegade General Khalifa Haftar in 2014 when he staged a coup against the GNC and then-government of Ali Zidan.

libyaobserver.ly

The Gaza-based terror  organization Hamas on Monday reportedly test-fired at least one long-range missile, launching the weapon into the the Mediterranean Sea, according to a Channel 2 report.

Residents situated in Israel’s southern communities reported hearing an explosion following the event, the report added.

No injuries or damage were reported in the incident.

Hamas frequently launches rockets into Mediterranean waters, honing its technological capabilities for a possible future confrontation with Israel.

Palestinian terrorists continually shoot rockets into Israeli territory, as well, with a number landing in residential areas located primarily in the South.

Earlier this month, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired a rocket at Sderot  setting off air raid sirens and narrowly missing homes. The rocket exploded in a road in the southern town, failing to cause physical injuries, but sending one local resident into shock.

Following the attack, an ISIS-linked Salafi jihadists in Gaza claimed responsibility. An online statement said the attack was part of the set “jihad against Jews,” and a response to the arrest by Hamas of five Salafi operatives in recent days.

The Israel Air Force struck a number of Hamas terror targets in response, launching air strikes in northern and southern Gaza. An additional Hamas target was hit by IDF tank fire in northern Gaza.

jpost.com

Seven Egyptian troops were killed and 14 others injured in a spate of militant attacks in the restive Sinai Peninsula on Sunday.

Five army troops were killed when militants attacked their patrol in North Sinai’s city of Sheikh Zuweid, a local security source told Anadolu Agency.

Snipers also shot dead an army officer as troops raided a village in Sheikh Zuweid, the source added anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

In another attack, a roadside bomb struck a police vehicle as it was passing in southern Sheikh Zuweid, killing a policeman and injuring two others, the source said.

Meanwhile, 12 troops were injured in two separate attacks in the same city on Sunday.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came only two days after 12 army soldiers were killed in a daring militant attack on a military checkpoint in the restive peninsula.

In response, the Egyptian army launched airstrikes on what it described as “militant hideouts” in North Sinai.

Military spokesman Mohamed Samir said early Monday that 18 militants had been killed and caches of weapons seized during the operation.

The spokesman, however, put the death toll of army troops during the offensive at three.

Since mid-2013, when Mohamed Morsi — Egypt’s first freely-elected president — was ousted in a military coup, hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have been killed in Sinai amid an ongoing militant insurgency.

Egyptian security forces have continued to wage a fierce campaign, involving elements from both the police and army, against what they describe as Sinai-based “terrorist groups”.

Egypt’s army-backed authorities say they are battling the “Welayat Sinai” (“Province of Sinai”), which is said to have links to the Daesh terrorist group.

aa.com.tr/

Clashes have erupted in the Libyan capital between militias loyal to a U.N.-backed government and those supporting a rival Islamist-oriented administration that had ruled Tripoli until March this year, Libyan security officials said on Sunday.

The clashes, which began late Saturday and continued into Sunday, followed Friday night’s takeover by militiamen loyal to the Islamist administration of the offices of the U.N.-backed National Accord government. The sites captured included a residential compound for some 145 members of a consultative chamber formally called the Supreme State Council.

The council issued a statement condemning the takeover of its offices, describing the move as “a desperate and bizarre attempt to confuse the political landscape and derail efforts to bring stability to the country.”

In a separate statement, the U.N.-backed government said it had instructed law enforcement authorities to identify and arrest those behind the takeover which, it said, wanted to create “parallel” institutions.

The Islamist General National Congress government has said it intends to seize all other state facilities in Tripoli, including the Central Bank and ministries. It also declared it was now the government in charge, seven months after it stepped aside in favor of the U.N.-backed government.

There was no information immediately available on any casualties from the clashes. The Friday takeover, which came after an hours-long standoff, did not involve any violence, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Late Saturday, the United States expressed its concern about what it called “reports of violence” in Tripoli and called on all parties to work together for a “safe, prosperous and free Libya.”

The takeover adds a new layer to the chaos and violence prevailing in Libya since the 2011 ouster and death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in a popular uprising that morphed into a civil war.

Libya has had two parliaments and two rival governments, effectively dividing the country into eastern and western sections. The parliament and interim government in the east of the country are refusing to endorse the U.N.-backed administration in Tripoli, in the west.

stripes.com

The Egyptian military has launched airstrikes on “terrorist positions” in the Sinai peninsula “to avenge the blood” of its soldiers killed in an attack on a military checkpoint Friday, according to an army statement.

While the military did not specifically name the group, ISIS claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack that left at least 12 soldiers and 15 of the assailants dead.

According to the army statement, released Saturday, the three-hour air operation targeted several concentrations of militants, destroyed ammunition and weapons storage facilities, destroyed seven vehicles and killed an unspecified number of militants.

Battle for control

The attackers hit the checkpoint using four-wheel drive vehicles, the Egyptian military said.

It’s the latest attack in a battle for control over the Sinai peninsula between Islamist militants and Egyptian forces.

Militancy in the Sinai increased dramatically after the army toppled President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

In August, the military said it had killed a key ISIS-allied leader in the region, along with dozens of his fighters.

news4jax.com

Britain has sent military personnels to Tunisia to provide training aimed at helping the North African country prevent the spread of Daesh fighters from neighbouring Libya, the British defence minister said on Saturday.

The training will focus on operational planning, intelligence, surveillance and mobile patrolling and is the third mission of its kind by British troops in Tunisia since 30 British holidaymakers were killed in a beach attack there.

The massacre in June last year at a hotel in Sousse on the Mediterranean coast was the biggest loss of British lives in such an incident since the July 2005 bombings in London.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said in a statement

We are determined to support our Tunisian allies to defend against Daesh terrorists who slaughtered innocent Britons on a beach there last year

Our training will help Tunisian forces strengthen their border security and stop the spread of Daesh along the coast.

The training will be delivered to around 200 Tunisian army personnel at various locations. Two previous training missions took place in February and late last year.

middleeastmonitor.com/

Lebanese security has foiled an ISIS-directed terror plot aiming to target Shiite Muslims in the run up to the holy day of Ashura, according to a local daily.

As-Safir newspaper reported Friday morning that Beirut’s southern suburbs (Dahiyeh) avoided a “massacre” after General Security managed to capture a would-be suicide bomber on October 5.

The terror suspect confessed that he was preparing to blow himself up on October 7 in “one of the largest mosques in Dahiyeh” during Muslim Friday communal prayers.

According to the report, another would-be suicide bomber was apprehended by Lebanese army intelligence, with both of them being dispatched by an ISIS official in the jihadist organization’s de-facto capital of Raqqa, although neither of the suspects knew of each other.

As-Safir added that two independent cells were providing logistic support for the attack, providing residency papers, securing transportation as well scouting intended targets.

Meanwhile, General Security on Thursday also arrested a number of suspects at a warehouse belonging to a person “affiliated to the Nusra Front” who operated as an arms dealer.

The security officers who raided the site in the mountain town of Bhamdoun discovered “detonators and hand grenades” in addition to a low-flying drone, which As-Safir said was “capable of carrying a small explosive.”

Although the article’s headline touted that security forces seized an “explosive plane,” it did not go into the technical specifications of the device, referring to it as a “fly-cam,” or “small camera attacked to a vehicle that flies at low altitudes.”

The arrested arms dealer in the warehouse admitted that he “sold explosives to more than one organization,” while allegedly adding that he also sold “five” of the “explosive flying cameras” to the Nusra Front—the former name of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham—the day before the raid.

mmedia.me