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Top Egyptian Islamist militant, Hisham Ashmawy killed
 
By:
Wed, 4 Mar 2020   ||   Nigeria,
 

Top Egyptian militant suspect Hisham al-Ashmawy was executed on Wednesday following his conviction over several high-profile attacks, the country’s military spokesman said.

Ashmawy, a former Egyptian special forces officer, led the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Egypt’s most active militant group, before it pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014.

He then moved with a group of followers to Egypt’s Western Desert, later crossing the border to Libya to join the al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia, according to Egyptian officials.

He was captured in the east Libyan city of Derna in late 2018 and transferred to Egypt in May 2019.

Ashmawy was convicted on several charges including plotting a 2014 attack that killed 22 military guards, and the attempted assassination of a former interior minister in 2013.

 

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