According to the Islamic State, one of its commanders was killed by “Jewish planes” on April 28, as the Egyptian military launched an attack on ISIS.
By Pesach Benson, United With Israel
The Islamic State (ISIS) accused Israel of killing one of its commanders in an airstrike in the Egyptian Sinai on Thursday.
The claim appeared in the Islamic State’s weekly newspaper, al-Naba. According to the terror group, a commander in the so-called Islamic State Sinai Province was killed by “Jewish planes” on April 28, as the Egyptian military launched an attack on the radical Islamic group.
It identified the commander as Abu Omar al-Ansari. No details as to the location or circumstances of the alleged strike were offered.
The paper also accused Israel of escalating its aerial attacks on the Islamic State over the past month with jets, helicopters and drones to support Egyptian forces operating in proximity to the Egypt-Gaza border.
The Islamic State is believed responsible for blowing up a natural gas pipeline in the northern Sinai town of Bir al-Abd on Saturday night. No casualties were reported. The terror group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on pipelines connecting Egypt to Israel and Jordan in the last several years.
Officials in Jerusalem and Cairo have not commented.
Israeli-Egyptian Security Cooperation Deeply Unpopular
Israeli-Egyptian security ties are deeply controversial in Egypt. Beside popular support for the Palestinians, the Egyptian public frowns on the implication that Cairo needs Israeli intervention to maintain order in the Sinai.
The New York Times reported in 2018 that Israel has carried out numerous air strikes with unmarked aircraft, which often fly circuitous routes to create the impression they came from the Egyptian mainland. The Times added that all the Israeli strikes were approved by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Islamic insurgents have been operating in the Sinai since 2011 when the Al Qaida-affiliated Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (ABM) first surfaced. Amid an intense Egyptian military crackdown and international setbacks to Al Qaida, ABM pledged its allegiance to Islamic State and renamed itself Islamic State-Sinai Province in 2014.