A terrorist cell sending youth to hotbeds of tension in Iraq and Syria was dismantled by security units in Moknine (governorate of Monastir).

According to an Interior Ministry press release, one member of this cell, which consists of 5 Takfiri elements, already went to Iraq and Syria.

This cell had sent a young man to Iraq where he died and others to Syria where they are still there, the same source added.

The public prosecutor ordered that all the elements of this cell will be arrested.

tap.info.tn

Last week, Hamas deployed several hundred fighters along the border between Gaza Sinai together with Egypt to prevent ISIS fighters in the region from breaching the coastal enclave.

Israel, Hamas, and Egypt have formed an unlikely alliance against the Islamic State in Sinai, who are planning increasingly sophisticated and daring attacks in the region, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

The Egyptian affiliate, referred to as Wilayat Sinai, is well equipped with weaponry and has been plotting more sophisticated attacks since taking responsibility for the October bombing of a Russian charter plane which killed all 224 passengers aboard.

Additionally, the group consistently carried out attacks against Egyptian soldiers, bombarding military outposts and planting roadside bombs in the vicinity.

“They have genius strategists,” said Mohannad Sabry, an Egyptian journalist and author of a book on Islamist insurgency in the Sinai. “If you study the map of their attacks, they obviously know what they are doing exactly, and it shows that they have a great deal of freedom of mobility.

Last week, Hamas deployed several hundred fighters along the border between Gaza and the northern Sinai as a precautionary measure together with Egypt to prevent ISIS fighters in the region from breaching the coastal enclave.

Hamas has also, for the first time, set up military checkpoints and border patrols along the frontier border with Israel, according to AFP.

Growing concern of threat from the Egyptian terror group has led to the greatest cooperation between the militaries of Egypt and Israel since both nations signed a peace agreement in 1979.

In recent months, Israel has tightened security and built a new barrier along the Israel-Egypt border, after reports from sources close to the militant group have claimed to be planning attacks against Israel in the south. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the security coordination between Egypt and Israel, saying that without increased security efforts “we would have been overflowed by thousands of ISIS fighters from Sinai.”

Egyptian intelligence agencies have struggled to infiltrate the secretive militant group, Israeli military officials and Egyptian activists in the Sinai have said. Israel is particularly concerned that the militants could target multinational peacekeeping efforts that maintain peace between Egypt and Israel along the Sinai border.

“Like anywhere, they [peacekeeping forces] could be considered a potential target,” said Lt. Col. Yaron Malka, the deputy commander of Israel’s Saqi Brigade that defends Israel’s border with Sinai.

Israel and Egyptian officials have been wary of Hamas’ relationship to Sinai militant groups, and suspect that Hamas used smuggling tunnels to allow fighters from Sinai to use the Gaza Strip as a safe haven. Israel says that Hamas has smuggled arms from Sinai groups to the Gaza Strip, with some groups allegedly tied to ISIS. Hamas has denied ties to the terror group, saying it has no sympathies to the Islamic State.

Hamas, which maintains positive relations with Egypt and depends on the country for its economic survival, said that they have deployed over 300 fighters along three sea borders and two land border crossings with Egypt.

jpost.com

A fourth terrorist has been eliminated Saturday afternoon following a combing operation carried out by the forces of the People’s National Army (ANP) in the locality of Kerkera in the province of Skikda, said the National Defence Ministry in a communiqué.

“As part of the fight against terrorism and following a combing operation carried out by the forces of the People’s National Army in the locality of Kerkera, Skikda (5th Military Region), which resulted in the killing of three terrorists and the recovery of firearms and munitions, a fourth terrorist has been eliminated, on this afternoon of 30 April 2016, in the same locality,” said the communiqué.

“This operation is still underway,” added the Ministry’s communiqué.

aps.dz

breitbart.com

Libya’s unity government called on militias in the country to delay launching any offensive to retake the city of Sirte from Islamic State (ISIS) until a unified military command is established in the unstable country.

“In absence of coordination and unified leadership … the [Presidential] Council expresses its concern that the battle of Sirte against Daesh [ISIS] will be a confrontation between those armed forces,” read a statement quoted by Reuters.

“Accordingly, the Presidential Council, as the supreme commander of army, demands all Libyan military forces wait for it to appoint a joint leadership for the Sirte operation,” the statement added.

In the power vacuum created by the overthrow of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011 Libya has been unable to establish a successful central authority since many of the ragtag armed groups that deposed Gaddafi fought each other for power. Amid the ensuing chaos ISIS managed to cease Sirte.

The US hopes that a central authority in Libya will soon be established which will call in the US and the western powers to assist it in uprooting ISIS from Libya.

rudaw.net/

The commander of Libyan forces, Khalifa Hiftar, is preparing his troops for an offensive against the Daesh stronghold of Sirte, which is expected to start within 48 hours, The Times reported.

 

According to newspaper, about 7,000 Libyan soldiers have been deployed to the city of Ajdabiya and another 700 to the southwest of Sirte in order to attack Daesh positions.

Gen. Akram Bouhlaiga said that the troops would be backed by a group of Mig-23 jet fighters, as quoted by the media outlet.

Ajdabiya residents reported that some 150 armed pick-up trucks equipped with anti-aircraft guns were moving on the way to Sirte, according to the publication.

According to the media outlet, Libya’s UN-backed unity government is against Hiftar’s offensive over concerns that his forces may clash not only with jihadists but also with forces loyal to the Tripoli-based General National Congress.

“We ask all military forces to wait for [the government] to appoint a joint command for the Sirte operation. Any infringement of this order will be considered against military law,” the unity government’s administration said as quoted in the publication.

After Libyan long-standing leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011 by Western-backed rebels, two rival governments were formed in Tobruk and Tripoli.

The instability triggered the rise of numerous Islamic militant and terrorist groups, particularly Daesh, outlawed in Russia, which has been carrying out attacks on Libyan oil and other infrastructure.

In December 2015, Libya’s rival governments (the internationally-recognized Council of Deputies based in Tobruk and the Tripoli-based General National Congress) agreed to create a Government of National Accord and end the political struggle. Fayez Sarraj currently heads Libya’s Government of National Accord.

The US has moved surveillance drones into the skies over Libya to gather intelligence and get a better picture of what’s going on in case additional military strikes against Islamic State militants are authorised.

The top US military officer told a Senate committee that the Pentagon has shifted assets to Libya, based on recommendations from the US commander for Africa.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the decision was made more than a month ago to increase resources for US Africa Command.

US officials say the decision allows the Pentagon to shift unmanned aircraft to Libya.

Dunford says he agrees with assessments that there are about 6,000 Islamic State militants in Libya.

sbs.com

The U.S. military has determined that Islamic State of Iraq and Levant was expanding throughout Egypt.
A U.S. Army report said ISIL has moved from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to Cairo, Western Desert and Upper Egypt. The report said ISIL was trying to link the Sinai theater with Libya, with a more than 1,000-kilometer border with Egypt.

“The Islamic State has struggled to execute this strategy, yielding mixed results with no shortage of spectacular failures,” the report, titled “The Islamic State’s Pyramid Scheme, said. “The lack of abundant local resources and experienced recruits in the Nile Valley, along with the relative strength of the Egyptian security services, has hindered the group’s designs. Nevertheless, if its strategy succeeds, the results could be devastating for Egypt’s security, economy, and for the region.”

The April 2016 report by the army’s Combating Terrorism Center said ISIL has been operating in Egypt for 18 months. The report, based on Egyptian security investigations, said ISIL was using its presence in Egypt to target Western interests as well as consolidate control over the Nile Valley. In September 2015, Egypt reported an ISIL cell in the Giza province.

“The group has also killed far greater numbers of local Sinai civilians in 2015 than previous years, for the first time targeting them with Islamic State-like abandon, risking a  backlash from local tribes,” the report said.

“Killing civilians in the mainland and harming the economy and livelihoods by attacks on tourism may also trigger a backlash from potentially supportive constituencies.”
The report identified Ashraf Al Gharably as the architect of ISIL operations in Egypt in 2015. Another key figure was Hisham Ashmawy, a former Egyptian SOF officer who would later command Al Murabitoun, an Al Qaida affiliate. The two men were said to have coopted a range of Al Qaida-aligned
militias.

“Al Gharably was planning what he had hoped would be a spectacular comeback to be unleashed in a dizzying succession of attacks last summer to destabilize Egypt significantly,” the report said.

The report, authored by research fellow Mokhtar Awad, said ISIL, which merged with Ansar Beit Maqdis in 2014, was using foreign fighters for operations in Egypt. In June 2015, Al Gharably sent three operatives to blow up a temple in Luxor, but the attack was foiled.

“As Al Gharably’s network suffered these setbacks, new cells made up of fresh Islamic State recruits whose loyalty is only to Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi rose in their stead,” the report said. “They have shown a greater ambition to wage armed insurgency near Cairo and start to link the Western Desert with the capital and beyond, yet suffer from lack of experience and capability because of the decapitation of many of the former ABM Nile Valley operatives like Al Gharably.”

menewsline.com

Lebanese forces killed an Islamic State leader on Thursday, April 28 in an army operation in the mountainous border region with Syria, Lebanon’s National News Agency and a security source said, according to Reuters.

The man was named as Nayif al-Shaalaan, and identified as Islamic State’s leader in the area by the security source. State media said he also went by the name Abu Fawz.

The operation took place in the area of Arsal in north Lebanon.

Fighting between Islamic State and al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front militants often spills over Lebanon’s mountainous northern border with Syria, where conflict has been raging for five years.

Fighters briefly overran Arsal in 2014 before withdrawing to the hills after clashes with the army, which stages regular operations against Islamic State and Nusra Front in north Lebanon and along the border.

panarmenian.net

Interior Ministry said attack targeted police convoy as it drove through El-Arish, provincial capital of North Sinai.

A roadside bomb in the North Sinai town of El-Arish killed three Egyptian police conscripts on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

Jihadists have waged an insurgency in the restive peninsula that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The interior ministry said Monday’s attack targeted a police convoy as it drove through El-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai.

The insurgency is led by the Islamic State jihadist group’s Egypt affiliate.

The group, which often claims attacks against security services, also said it planted a bomb on board a Russian airliner over Sinai last October, killing all 224 people on board.

middle-east-online.com