Tunisia said Tuesday it had foiled a “terrorist plot” aimed at allowing ISIS jihadists to seize part of its territory, like reported by albawaba.com.

Two policemen were killed in two separate attacks in Egypt’s North Sinai province on Tuesday, like reported by aninews.in.

As per media reports, unknown gunmen shot dead two policemen in two separate attacks in the same city. A massive manhunt operation is underway to nab the culprits.

In a similar attack on August 9, unidentified gunmen had killed a police officer and injured two others in Egypt’s Southern Qena province.

Hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have been killed in militant attacks across Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which has remained the epicenter of a deadly militant insurgency since mid-2013, whenMohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely-elected president, was ousted in a military coup.

Egypt is experiencing wave of terrorist attacks which target the security men since the ouster of the Morsi in response to mass protest against his one-year in rule.

The attacks that have killed hundreds of military and police men were mostly claimed by Islamic State branch in Sinai.

Hours after Saraya ahl al-Sham militants and their families arrived to Qalamoun from Lebanon’s Jurud Arsal area, the Lebanese Army launched on Tuesday sweep operations in the geographical area where the militants were present, ahead of triggering a battle against ISIS in Jurud Baalbek and Qaa, expected soon, like reported by aawsat.com.

“The Lebanese Army is already inside the area previously controlled by Saraya ahl al-Sham militants and had started a sweeping operation to clean it from cluster bombs and explosives,” a military source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday.

He said that the army also secured their route to the hills from where they can supervise ISIS positions and target any movement by the organization’s militants.

“The announcement of the start of the military operation is now very near,” he said.

According to military sources, the army also installed a military operation room inside its headquarters in Yarzeh to follow up on the field of developments minute by minute.

The source also uncovered the presence of a plan to provide the public with the latest information from inside the battlefield.

He also said a number of US and British experts were still present inside the air military base in the Riyaq area in Lebanon’s Bekaa.

However, the military source denied that those experts were present in Lebanon to participate in the battle. “Their presence is linked to offering some training and information about the weapons they already provided to the army. They will have no role in the field developments,” the source added.

On Tuesday, Lebanese Army units resumed bombarding ISIS locations in the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa, using intermittent artillery fire.

The army personnel also advanced on Tuesday morning in the areas of Mrah al-Sheikh, Ajram and Wadi Hmayd in the region of Arsal’s outskirts, as part of the army’s ongoing tightening on terrorist groups in the towns of Baalbek and al-Qaa, where they detected a number of explosive belts, bombs shells, booby traps and the body of an unknown person, an army statement said.

Members of Wilyat Sinai, the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State, have been seeking to increase their recruitment of Gazan jihadists to IS in Sinai, a senior jihadist in Gaza has told breitbart.com.

“The actions of the Egyptian army in Sinai cause losses to our brothers in Sinai and the leadership of Wilyat Sinai wants to increase the pace of recruitment of mujahedeen from among the youth in the Gaza Strip. The numbers coming from the Strip, our brothers explain, are unable to make up the losses caused to the mujahedeen in the Sinai,” said jihadist Abou Baker al-Maqdesi.

According to the Egyptian air force, airstrikes have been increasing over the past few weeks. Without citing any evidence, Maqdisi claimed Egypt is being aided by the Israeli Air Force.

“The air force of the Jewish enemy explains the rise in losses among our brothers, the mujahedeen, since the pilots of the infidel Egyptian army were inaccurate, but now the strikes are much more precise and so our brothers in Sinai need additional power from the Gaza Strip.”

Al-Maqdesi said that Wilyat Sinai is recruiting jihadists from the Strip because many are or were members of Palestinian jihadist organizations, meaning they are better trained than the young men who join the group from the Bedouin tribes in Sinai.

Libya National Army (LNA) forces on Wednesday clamped down their control of the eastern port city, Derna, with the local council urging all role players to take up the responsibility of keeping civilians safe, like reported by aawsat.com.

Derna was one of the established strongholds for extremists.

City head council, supporting the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), claimed that Derna’s humanitarian situation is short to catastrophic and life-threatening.

The chief described the LNA-imposed siege on the city as equivalent to genocide. For the past week, all roads in and out of the town have been blocked. Three days ago, faced with deteriorating conditions and fearing a humanitarian disaster, Derna’s council of elders issued an appeal.

“The town is being slaughtered in cold-blood by the siege. We call on all to put an end to it,” it said.

On the other hand, the ultra-hardline Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna announced that their affiliated militias are more than prepared to respond to the recent LNA-led offensive.

Speaking in a televised broadcast, a Mujahideen in Derna spokesman said LNA forces were preventing food supplies and medical aid from being delivered to the city, which is home to about 120 thousand people.

Defending his group’s position, the spokesman said that “LNA have no right to guardianship over the people of Derna,” and stressed that the Mujahideen factions “will not allow LNA forces to enter and shed blood.”

The Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna was created by former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group member Salim Derby on 12 December 2014. Besides seeking to implement strict social mores in Derna, the alliance is known for its open opposition to LNA Chief Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and the Libyan ISIS affiliates.

LNA forces publicly launched an extensive ground operation to liberate the city from the grip of militias, which have controlled Derna for nearly four years.

Colonel Ahmad al-Mesmary, LNA spokesman, announced that a military aircraft destroyed a militia-linked bulldozer based near the city’s coastal line on Monday evening.

In a brief statement, Massmary confirmed that the bulldozer was manned by terrorists and safeguarded ammunition and weapons.

A terrorist was arrested and two others killed so far in a police operation that started on Tuesday evening in Jebel Bireno, governorate of Kasserine, like reported by tap.info.tn.

The third terrorist, apprehended in the early hours of Wednesday morning, is in a very critical condition, Colonel Major Khalifa Chibani, Spokesman for the National Guard, told TAP. No police casualties were reported in the ongoing operation, he indicated.

Two terrorists were killed on Tuesday night in an ambush set up by national guards. Four Kalashnikovs, seven magazines, a handmade grenade, three handmade tasers, ammunition and mobile phones were seized.

Jebel Bireno operation is an anticipatory one, said Spokesperson for the Anti-Terror Judicial Pole Sofien Selliti. It was planned more than one month ago in coordination with the anti-terror squad of the National Guard.

The terrorists were members of Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade; DNA analysis will be conducted to identify them, Selliti further said.

Four Egyptian police officers have been shot dead by Islamic militants in restive Northern Sinai.

Gunmen forced the policemen’s car to stop and shot them dead, a security source told dpa on condition of anonymity.

The assailants fled the scene.

The attack took place in al-Arish, the capital city of northern Sinai.

The four were killed execution-style after they were forced out of their vehicle, witnesses said.

There has been no claim of responsibility so far.

Egypt has seen a series of deadly attacks, mainly targeting security forces and the country’s Christian minority, since the army’s overthrow in 2013 of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi following mass protests against his rule.

Most of the attacks were claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State extremist militia.

Attack to be coordinated with Assad’s forces which, together with Hezbollah, will assault the same area from the other side of the boundary, like reported by toi.com

Lebanon’s US-backed military is gearing up for a long-awaited assault to dislodge hundreds of Islamic State militants from a remote corner near the Syrian border, seeking to end a years-long threat posed to neighboring towns and villages by the extremists.

The campaign will involve cooperation with the militant group Hezbollah and the Syrian army on the other side of the border — although Lebanese authorities insist they are not coordinating with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

But the assault could prove costly for the under-equipped military and risk activating IS sleeper cells in the country.

The tiny Mediterranean nation has been spared the wars and chaos that engulfed several countries in the region since the so-called Arab Spring uprisings erupted in 2011. But it has not been able to evade threats to its security, including sectarian infighting and random car bombings, particularly in 2014, when militants linked to al-Qaeda and IS overran the border region, kidnapping Lebanese soldiers.

The years-long presence of extremists in the border area has brought suffering to neighboring towns and villages, from shelling, to kidnappings of villagers for ransom. Car bombs made in the area and sent to other parts of the country, including the Lebanese capital, Beirut, have killed scores of citizens.

Aided directly by the United States and Britain, the army has accumulated steady successes against the militants in the past year, slowly clawing back territory, including strategic hills retaken in the past week. Authorities say it’s time for an all-out assault.

The planned operation follows a six-day military offensive by the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah that forced al-Qarda-linked fighters to flee the area on the outskirts of the town of Arsal, along with thousands of civilians.

In a clear distribution of roles, the army is now expected to launch the attack on IS. In the past few days, the army’s artillery shells and multiple rocket launchers have been pounding the mountainous areas on the Lebanon-Syria border where IS held positions, in preparation for the offensive. Drones could be heard around the clock and residents of the eastern Bekaa Valley reported seeing army reinforcements arriving daily in the northeastern district of Hermel to join the battle.

The offensive from the Lebanese side of the border will be carried out by the Lebanese army, while Syrian troops and Hezbollah fighters will be working to clear the Syrian side of IS militants. Hezbollah has been fighting alongside Assad’s forces since 2013.

Experts say more than 3,000 troops, including elite special forces, are in the northeastern corner of Lebanon to take part in the offensive. The army will likely use weapons it received from the United States, including Cessna aircraft that discharge Hellfire missiles.

Keen to support the army rather than the better equipped Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the US and Britain have supplied the military with helicopters, anti-tank missiles, artillery and radars, as well as training. The American Embassy says the US has provided Lebanon with over $1.4 billion in security assistance since 2005.

But the fight is not expected to be quick or easy.

According to Lebanon’s Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, there are about 400 IS fighters in the Lebanese area, and hundreds more on the Syrian side of the border.

“It is not going to be a picnic,” said Hisham Jaber, a retired army general who heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Political Research in Beirut. “The Lebanese army will try to carry out the mission with the least possible losses.”

Jaber said the battle may last several weeks. “It is a rugged area and the organization (IS) is well armed and experienced.”

There are also concerns the offensive may subject Lebanon to retaliatory attacks by militants, just as the country has started to enjoy a rebound in tourism.

A Lebanese security official said authorities are taking strict security measures to prevent any attack deep inside Lebanon by sleeper cells. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said authorities have detained several IS militants over the past weeks.

Lebanese politicians say IS controls an area of about 296 square kilometers (114 square miles) between the two countries, of which 141 square kilometers (54.5 square miles) are in Lebanon.

The area stretches from the badlands of the Lebanese town of Arsal and Christian villages of Ras Baalbek and Qaa, to the outskirts of Syria’s Qalamoun region and parts of the western Syrian town of Qusair that Hezbollah captured in 2013.

In a televised speech last Friday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said that once the Lebanese army launches its offensive from the Lebanese side, Hezbollah and the Syrian army will begin their attack from the Syrian side. He added that there has to be coordination between the Syrian and Lebanese armies in the battle.

“Opening two fronts at the same time will speed up victory and reduce losses,” Nasrallah said, adding that his fighters on the Lebanese side of the border are at the disposal of Lebanese troops if needed.

“I tell Daesh that the Lebanese and Syrians will attack you from all sides and you will not be able to resist and will be defeated,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the extremist group.

“If you decide to fight, you will end up either a prisoner or dead,” Nasrallah added.

Some Lebanese politicians have been opposed to security coordination with the Syrian army. The Lebanese are sharply divided over Syria’s civil war that has spilled to the tiny country of 4.5 million people. Lebanon is hosting some 1.2 million Syrian refugees.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri is opposed to Assad while his national unity Cabinet includes Hezbollah as well as other groups allied with the Syrian president.

Last week, Hariri told reporters that Lebanese authorities are ready to negotiate to discover the fate of nine Lebanese soldiers who were captured during the raid on Arsal by IS and al-Qaeda fighters in August 2014. Unlike their rivals in al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group is not known to negotiate prisoner exchanges.

“The presence of Daesh will end in Lebanon,” Hariri said, using the same Arabic acronym to refer to IS.