By Omar Fahmy and Yara Bayoumy
It was the first
time Egypt confirmed launching air strikes against the group in
neighboring Libya, showing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is ready to
expand his fight against Islamist militancy beyond Egypt's borders.
Egypt said the dawn strike, in which Libya's air force
also participated, hit Islamic State camps, training sites and weapons
storage areas in Libya, where civil conflict has plunged the country
into near anarchy and created havens for militia.
A Libyan air force
commander said between 40 to 50 militants were killed in the attack.
"There are casualties among individuals, ammunition and the (Islamic
State) communication centers," Saqer al-Joroushi told Egyptian state
television.
"More air strikes will be carried out today and tomorrow in coordination with Egypt," he said.
The 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, who had gone to Libya
in search of work, were marched to a beach, forced to kneel and then
beheaded on video, which was broadcast via a website that supports
Islamic State.
Before the killings, one of the militants stood with a knife in his hand
and said: "Safety for you crusaders is something you can only wish
for."
Egypt's Coptic
Christian pope was one of the public figures who backed Sisi when he, as
army chief, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass
protests against him.
The beheadings could pile pressure on Sisi to show he is in
control of Egypt's security, even though he has already made progress
against Islamist militant insurgents in the Sinai.
Egypt has
been trying to project an image of stability ahead of an investment
conference in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in March
designed to lure billions of dollars into an economy battered by turmoil
since the 2011 uprising.
"This allows Sisi to come up looking very strong, showing
Egyptians that Egypt is projecting power in the region. It helps sort of
mitigate other issues," said Kamran Bokhari, a Middle East analyst at
Stratfor.
"He may not be looking strong on the economic front or domestic security
front, and there's the question of political legitimacy that still
hangs there, but he is saying that Egypt will become like Libya without
him."
SECURITY THREAT
Sisi, who has called for a global effort to eradicate
militancy, which he says is harming Islam, sees radical groups in Libya
as a major threat to Egypt's security.
Fears that the crisis could spill across the border have prompted Egypt to upgrade its military hardware.
France has said Egypt will order 24 Rafale fighter jets, a
naval frigate and other equipment in a deal to be signed in Cairo on
Monday worth more than 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion).
French President Francois Hollande said on Monday that he
and Sisi wanted the United Nations Security Council to discuss Libya and
take new measures against the Islamic State, whose influence has spread
rapidly from its original Syrian base.
Egypt, the Arab
world's most populous nation, has not taken part directly in the
U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and
Syria, focusing instead on the increasingly complex insurgency at home.
The United Arab Emirates, a close ally of Sisi, said it
"would put all its capabilities to support ... Egypt's efforts to
eradicate terrorism and the violence against its citizens", according to
the UAE foreign minister who was cited on the WAM state news agency.
A number of Arab states are now directly attacking Islamic
State, with Egypt following on the heels of Jordan, which has launched
repeated airstrikes against militants in Syria this month following the
killing of a Jordanian pilot.
The Libyan air force commander, Joroushi, said Egyptian
and Libyan planes had combined to strike targets in the eastern town of
Derna. Libyan war planes then attacked the central cities of Sirte and
Ben Jawad, he told Reuters.
Security officials
say militants in Libya have established ties with Sinai Province, a
group operating from Egypt's vast Sinai Peninsula that has pledged
allegiance to Islamic State.
Sinai Province has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police since the army toppled Mursi.
The upheavals in Egypt have pummeled the local economy and thousands of
Egyptians desperate for work have traveled to oil-rich Libya, despite
the government's advice not to go to a state sliding into chaos.
A number of Islamist militant groups have been active in
Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 left the country without
a strong central government. A few have declared ties to Islamic State
and claimed high-profile attacks over recent weeks in what appears to be
an intensifying campaign.
(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba, Omar Fahmy, Shadi Bushra in
Cairo and Ulf Laessing in Tripoli; Writing By Yara Bayoumy; Editing By
Michael Georgy and Crispian Balmer)
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