Egypt militant group rejects affiliation to ISIL

Egypt’s Ansar Bait al-Maqdis militant group has dismissed media reports that it has pledged allegiance to the Takfiri ISIL terrorist group, whose members are currently wreaking havoc in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Ansar Bait al-Maqdis wrote on its tweet account on Saturday that the statement spread in the media about their alleged allegiance to the ISIL “is not ours.”

The denial comes as some media outlets reported in November last year that Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which operates inside Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula, had sworn allegiance to ISIL and its purported leader, Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In recent months, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis members have staged deadly attacks on Egypt’s police forces and claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on military facilities in the capital, Cairo, as well as the Sinai Peninsula.

On January 31, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to defeat the militants fighting against government forces in the Sinai Peninsula, saying that his government is ready to brace for a long fight to defeat the extremists.

ISIL, with members from several Western countries, controls parts of Syria and Iraq and has been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have recently succeeded in driving the ISIL terrorists out of some areas in Iraq. Syrian government forces have also managed to gain new grounds in their battle against the extremists.