In coordination with the Libyan Government of National Accord, U.S. Africa Command conducted an airstrike targeting ISIS-Libya terrorists in the vicinity of Murzuq, Libya, September 19, 2019.

“U.S. Africa Command conducted this airstrike to eliminate terrorist leaders and fighters and to disrupt terrorist activity,” said Gen. Stephen Townsend, U.S. Africa Command commander.

“We will not allow them to use the current conflict in Libya as protection. Together with our Libyan partners, we will continue to deny terrorists safe haven in Libya.”

U.S. Africa Command continues to support diplomatic efforts to stabilize the political situation in Libya and disrupt terrorist organizations that threaten regional stability.

At this time, it is assessed the airstrike killed eight (8) terrorists.

Currently, we assess no civilians were injured or killed as a result of this airstrike.

Six Muslim Brotherhood members have been killed in a shootout with Egyptian police on the outskirts of Cairo, the interior ministry said.

In a brief statement, the ministry said police exchanged fire with the “terrorist” group in 6 October City, on the southwestern edge of the capital, accusing it of “planning a series of terror operations.”

The announcement comes after rare protests against Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi broke out in several Egyptian cities on Friday and Saturday, with state media accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of influencing the protesters.

After the 2013 military overthrow of elected Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist group was banned and deemed a terror group.

An ongoing wide-scale crackdown has jailed thousands of Islamists and the authorities regularly raid and kill armed affiliates of the banned group.

Last month, Egyptian security forces killed 17 suspected militants over a deadly Cairo car blast that claimed some 20 lives.

In a meeting with US President Donald Trump on Monday in New York, Sissi was critical of what he called “political Islam.”

Sisi led the military ouster of Morsi in 2013, becoming president the following year.

Asked about the small-scale protests last week, he said “the region will remain in a state of instability as long as there’s political Islam vying for power.”

He referred to the one-year rule of the Brotherhood in Egypt.

The Islamist group threw its support behind protests calling for Sissi’s removal in a Friday statement.

Egyptian security forces say police have killed 15 Islamic State militants in a shootout in the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, like reporte by aawsat.com.

They say the shootout took place on Sunday when police raided the militants’ hideout west of the Mediterranean city of el-Arish.

Security officials say they found weapons and explosive materials in the hideout, and the bodies were taken to a nearby hospital for identification.

Separately, they say six security forces were wounded when an explosive device hit their vehicle in the nearby town Sheikh Zuweid.

Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Egypt has battled an insurgency led by an ISIS affiliate for years in the Sinai Peninsula that has occasionally spilled over to the mainland.

A maritime border operation coordinated by Interpol has detected more than a dozen suspected “foreign terrorist fighters” (FTFs) travelling across the Mediterranean, like reported by euronews.com.

The exercise, Operation Neptune II, took place from July 24 – September 8 and focused on the threat posed by suspected FTFs potentially using maritime routes between North Africa and Southern Europe during the busy summer tourist season, the organisation said.

Officials at seven seaports in Algeria, France, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia carried out more than 1.2 million searches across Interpol’s databases, looking for stolen and lost travel documents and stolen vehicles, among other things.

They resulted in 31 active investigative leads, with over 12 of them linked to the movement of terror suspects.

Experts from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and the World Customs Organization (WCO) also participating in the initiative.

“Interpol acts as a global tripwire, by disrupting the movement of individuals linked to criminal and terrorist activities,” according to Secretary-General Jürgen Stock.

“Every check, border control or random search is a potential break in a terror investigation,” he added.

Interpol is the world’s largest international police organisation, coordinating action between forces around the world, including searches for wanted and missing people.

Its databases currently hold details of more than 50,000 foreign terrorist fighters and some 400,000 pieces of terrorist-related information, the organisation said.

Seven people were injured in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday when three rockets fired at Israel from the coastal territory landed in the Hamas-controlled enclave, like reported by jns.org.

According to eyewitnesses, two of the rockets exploded near a house in Rafah city, while third fell in open territory near the Gaza-Israel border fence.

The Gaza Health Ministry said seven people were wounded, but gave no further details.

The barrage did not trigger alert sirens in Israel, but alarms were sounded an open field in the Eshkol region, according to regional officials.

Tensions along the Gaza-Israel border are again on the rise, following a brief lull during ceasefire efforts led by Egypt.

On Friday, some 4,000 Gazans took part in demonstrations at the border, with several hundred rioting and throwing rocks and explosive devices at Israeli soldiers guarding the fence.

On Sept. 10, rockets launched at Ashdod and Ashkelon interrupted a campaign rally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, forcing him to leave the stage and seek cover.

Egyptian security forces have killed a group of suspected terrorists in North Sinai who were plotting to carry out a series of attacks against police and army troops in the border region, the interior ministry said, according to ahram.org.eg

The men were killed after they opened fire from their vehicle on security forces who approached them in the Galabana area, the ministry said in a statement.

The terrorists were found in possession of ammunition, automatic weapons and materials used in making explosive devices, it said.

The ministry did not reveal the number or the identity of the suspects but said all of them were killed, adding that another terrorist was killed nearby after he opened fire on security forces.

A total of four policemen were injured in the two shootouts, it added.

The ministry released photos of bloodied bodies with their faces concealed lying on the ground.

Egypt is fighting an Islamist militancy based in North Sinai which intensified in 2013 following the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Crushing the militants, who have mainly targeted police and army personnel, and restoring security has been a key priority of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Egyptian security forces launched an extensive security operation in February 2018 to eliminate the militants, killing hundreds of them in raids ever since.

The Libyan National Army has shot down a Turkish drone which attempted to target al-Jufra air base, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported.

The drone was shot down after taking off from Misrata airbase and before targeting the al-Jufra air base, according to a statement from the LNA.

The LNA has controlled the al-Jufra strategic air base since June 2017. The district of Jufra is just over 500 km southwest of Benghazi, and about the same distance southeast of Tripoli.

Libyan forces loyal to eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive in April to capture Tripoli, home to the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), which relies on the support of Turkish-trained militias who are suspected of facilitating the movement of foreign extremists from Syria and Iraq into Libya.

Israel struck some 15 Hamas targets in the northern and central Gaza Strip overnight Tuesday in response to rockets that were fired from the coastal enclave earlier that night, the Israeli military said according to haaretz.com.

The sites targeted in the airstrike include Hamas military infrastructure used for weapons manufacturing, several targets in a military compound of Hamas’ naval force and a an attack tunnel intended to be used for terror attacks, the Israeli army said in a statement.

The Israeli army noted that its strikes were carried out in retaliation for two rockets that were launched from the Strip toward the southern Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod on Tuesday. The rockets were fired while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was addressing crowds at a campaign rally in Ashdod, and had to be taken off the stage mid-speech.

Prior to the Israeli strike in Gaza, Netanyahu held security consultations with senior defense establishment officials.

This is the latest escalation in developing tensions on Israel’s border with both Gaza and Lebanon, as the country enters the final week of its redux election campaign.

Palestinian sources said Tuesday night that Israel had carried out several airstrikes near the city of Deir al Balah in central Gaza, in addition to striking in the northern Strip.

Hamas’ military wing reported that an Israeli drone had been downed in the night between Monday and Tuesday in the coastal enclave. The movement had managed to access information regarding the unmanned aircraft mission, Hamas said. The IDF later confirmed the drone had fallen in Gaza.

On Sunday, a projectile was fired from Gaza but failed to reach Israel, landing inside the Strip. This came one day after the IDF said it carried out several airstrikes in Gaza, including on a Hamas naval base and two complexes of the organization’s aerial command.

According to the IDF, the strikes were in response to a drone attack earlier on Saturday, in which a Gaza drone entered Israeli airspace and dropped explosives on a military vehicle by the border fence.

A few hours earlier on Saturday, an Israeli military aircraft fired at what it identified as the Gaza cell that launched the drone attack.

On Friday night, Israel struck several Hamas targets in Gaza after five rockets were launched from the Strip overnight Friday, targeting Hamas military positions near the Israeli border with aircraft and tank fire. The fire was an apparent response to the death of two Palestinian teenagers killed by Israeli fire during weekly March of Return border protests.

There have also been continuing tensions between Hezbollah and Israel along the Israel-Lebanon border, after an Israeli drone attack on a Hezbollah site in a Beirut suburb – although both sides have until now managed to prevent an escalation.

The Libyan National Army declared that it had achieved major field progress in the battle for Tripoli and its outskirts, like reported by aawsat.com.

LNA media said the forces were close to recapturing the city of Gharyan. It broadcast footage to confirm its capture of Ghout al-Reeh on the outskirts of the city.

It said that the air force destroyed two armored vehicles amid its troop advance on the ground and as militias began to flee Gharyan.

The forces were now marching on Gharyan’s city center.

The LNA had launched on April 4 an operation to liberate Tripoli from terrorist and criminal militias that are loyal to the Government of National Accord.

The GNA, meanwhile, said it was sending military reinforcements to Gharyan after some of its militias acknowledged they were facing difficulties in maintaining their positions against the LNA onslaught.

The GNA had captured Gharyan in late June. 

The city, located south of Tripoli, was a key to the LNA supply routes in its attack on Tripoli.

The LNA recapture of the city would be a major blow to the pro-GNA militias and will pave the way for the army to breach the defenses surrounding Tripoli’s southern suburbs.

To ease the pressure off Gharyan, the militias have threatened to attack the city if Tarhuna, southeast of Tripoli. The city, which is held by the LNA, serves as its secondary platform for launching attacks on the capital.

The Israeli Air Force bombed a military post belonging to a Palestinian terrorist group based in Lebanon in the early hours of Monday morning, Arab media reported.

According to the reports, the strike targeted a base in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, near the country’s border with Syria, which is manned by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a terrorist group affiliated with Hezbollah.

An Israeli military official said the IDF “does not comment on foreign media reports.”

The strikes came a day after the IDF foiled an Iranian plot to launch a drone attack against Israel, from Syria.

Lebanese media reported Sunday that two drones, which the Lebanese army and the Iran-backed Hezbollah said were Israeli, crashed into a Hezbollah building in a southern suburb of Beirut.

An Israeli defense source told Israel Hayom Monday that if the IAF did, in fact, strike the base, it would be to prevent retaliation by Hezbollah over Sunday’s operation.

Lebanese media quoted security sources as saying there were no injuries in the attack, but other Arab media reports gave conflicting numbers of casualties.

An official from the Lebanese town of Qusaya, which houses the base, said three airstrikes hit the area, causing only material damage.

Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar said anti-aircraft fire was launched from the position.

“Drones targeted one of our sites with three small rockets. There were no casualties, only material damage,” Abu Muhammad told An-Nahar.