by WorldTribune Staff, August 5, 2016

The “number one” leader of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant’s (ISIL’s) Sinai affiliate was killed in an Egyptian airstrike, a spokesman for Egypt’s military said.

Abu Duaa al-Ansari was killed in an operation south of the Egyptian coastal city of El-Arish that also killed more than 45 other jihadists of the ISIL affiliate Sinai Province, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir said in a Facebook post. Several senior leaders of the terror group were among those killed, Samir added.

Al-Ansari was the “number one” leader of the terror group behind scores of deadly attacks on security forces and the suspected downing of a Russian airliner, the Egyptian army said.

The Egyptian operation was carried out jointly by the air force and the anti-terrorism squad, according to Samir’s statement.

Dozens of other jihadists were “targeted with precise hits” in the operation against the group’s strongholds in the south and south-west El-Arish, the army said. The operation destroyed depots where weapons, ammunition and explosives were stored, it added.

  Abu Duaa al-Ansari, Egypt airstrike kills chief of ISIL’s Sinai affiliate, El Arish, Sinai Province, WorldTribune.com