Egypt's military said Sunday (April 2nd) a founder of a militant faction in North Sinai that pledged allegiance to the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) was killed in an airstrike, AFP reported.
A total of 18 "extremely dangerous" insurgents were killed and others wounded in raids carried out on March 18th, it said.
Among those killed was Salem Selmi el-Hamadeen, known as Abu Anas al-Ansari, a founder and top member of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the military said on its official Facebook page.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis was the name used by the group before it pledged allegiance to ISIL in November 2014.
ISIL reported the death of the militant, active in the Sinai peninsula ever since the mid-2000s, in its weekly newsletter al-Nabaa last Thursday.
Al-Ansari was previously a member of al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, a group that claimed a string of bombings at Red Sea resorts in Sinai from 2004 to 2006, killing more than 100 people.
