Egypt's Interior Ministry confirmed on Thursday (November 16th) the death of one of the country's most wanted militants in airstrikes late October against a group behind a deadly ambush on policemen, AFP reported.
Former army officer turned extremist Emad al-Din Abdel Hamid had commanded the group that killed at least 16 policemen in an October 20th Western Desert ambush and later died in military airstrikes, the ministry said in a statement.
The group had been organised in the Libyan militant stronghold of Derna, the ministry added.
A previously unknown terror group calling itself Ansar al-Islam -- or "Supporters of Islam"-- had said one of its leaders, Abdel Hamid, was later killed in the airstrikes.
The ministry said police had captured Libyan extremist Abdel Rahim Mohamed Abdullah al-Mismari who survived the airstrikes that killed 15 jihadists, including Abdel Hamid, days after the attack.
"The group...was formed under the leadership of Emad al-Din Ahmed Mahmoud Abdel Hamid, who died in the airstrikes targeting the group" that carried out the October 20th ambush, the statement said.
It added that the group was involved in a massacre of Coptic Christians south of Cairo in May, although the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) had claimed responsibility for that attack.
Egyptian police had for years been seeking Abdel Hamid.
He is believed to have joined a fellow officer Hisham el-Ashmawy in Libya.
El-Ashmawy, who split with an Egyptian extremist group that claimed allegiance to ISIS in 2014, is thought to be aligned with al-Qaeda.
Egypt believes the militants have been plotting attacks from Derna.
