Egyptian security officials say a key leader of a militant group has been shot dead in the Sinai peninsula.<\/p>\n
Shadi el-Menei was the purported head of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, suspected of a string of recent attacks.<\/p>\n
Several other members of the al-Qaeda-inspired group were said to have been killed but this has not been confirmed.<\/p>\n
The deaths of more than 200 Egyptian soldiers and officials have been blamed on Ansar Beit al-Maqdis since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in July 2013.<\/p>\n
Media quoted unnamed officials as saying security forces opened fire on the men as they were about to carry out an attack on a gas pipeline in central Sinai.<\/p>\n
A different account came from officials who told the Associated Press that Shadi el-Menei and at least three associates were killed by 15 attackers in revenge for the killings of tribesmen by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.<\/p>\n
Islamist groups in the Sinai have stepped up their attacks against Egypt’s army and police forces in the last year.<\/p>\n
The Egyptian army launched a major operation against militants in the Sinai but attacks have continued.<\/p>\n
Last week, two army officers and five militants were said to have died in a gunfight during a raid on a warehouse linked to Islamist militants north of Cairo.<\/p>\n
Officials said the militants were from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.<\/p>\n
wirestory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Egyptian security officials say a key leader of a militant group has been shot dead in the Sinai peninsula. Shadi el-Menei was the purported head of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, suspected of a string of recent attacks. Several other members of the al-Qaeda-inspired group were said to have been killed but this has not been confirmed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000052321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-14579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000052321,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14579.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14579.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14579.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14579.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14579.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14579.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000052321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14579"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=14579"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=14579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}