Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt has reported a counter-insurgency success on the eve of presidential elections.

Security sources said the Egyptian Army killed a leading commander of Ansar Beit Maqdis.

The sources said the commander, identified as Shadi Menei, was tracked and ambushed on May 25 in the Sinai Peninsula.

“The Army conducted an operation that led to the killing of six high-risk targets,” Egyptian Army spokesman Ahmed Ali, who did not elaborate, said.

It was not clear how Menei was killed. The sources said Menei directed operations against Egypt’s military and security forces in northern Sinai over the last year.

Ansar has been deemed the bloodiest insurgency network in Egypt. The sources attributed most attacks in Sinai and the African mainland to Ansar or its offshoots.

The killing marked the latest CI success for Egypt, scheduled to begin
presidential elections on May 26. In March 2014, Ansar commander Tawfiq
Farij was killed in a car explosion, and Mensei was believed to have been
named the new chief.

But the sources said Menei might have been killed by Bedouins from the
Sawarka tribe in central Sinai. They said he and three other purported Ansar
fighters were found in a car riddled with bullets.

“We believe the killings were to avenge an Ansar operation against a
local tribe,” a source said.

  Egyptian Army kills top Ansar Beit Maqdis commander, Shadi Menei, Sinai Bedouins, Tawfiq Farij