File photo: A helicopter flies overhead as soldiers in military vehicles head towards al-Jura district in the city of El-Arish from Sheikh Zuwaid. Reuters
Prominent terrorist leader Jamil Suleiman Zuraei, also known as Abu Anas, and his son were killed Friday during an armed forces operation in the city of El-Arish, the capital of the northern governorate of Sinai, a knowledgeable source told Ahram Online.
Abu Anas was a top leader of the Islamic State terrorist group’s branch in North Sinai, the so-called “Sinai Province”, formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis.
Although the terror group announced in May 2022 that Abu Anas had been killed, this turned out to be misinformation, as his body was not found at the time, the sources said.
According to the sources, Abu Anas was hiding near the fence of El-Arish airport, which is under construction, when he and his son, both armed, were targeted.
The sources also revealed that other high-profile terrorists have been killed in operations over the past week; some of them were Palestinian fugitives.
The most prominent of them was Hamza Al-Zamilithe mufti of the terrorist group, who led a cell in the village of Gelbana in North Sinaiclose to the Suez Canal shipping lane, the sources said.
Since 2013, the military has launched one operation after another against terrorist forces in North Sinai, the largest of which is the Sinai Comprehensive Operation launched in 2018 (COS 2018).
As a result, the rate of terrorist attacks in North Sinai has decreased in recent years following massive military and security operations.
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