AP, Cairo :
Egyptian warplanes struck Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, just hours after the extremist group released a grisly video showing the beheading of several Egyptian Coptic Christians it had held hostage for weeks.
An armed forces spokesman announced the strikes on state radio, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have exploited the chaos following the 2011 uprising against dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the “intense strikes” were “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.”
“Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield to protect and safeguard the security of the country and a sword that amputates terrorism and extremism,” it said.
Egypt is already battling a burgeoning Islamist insurgency centered in the strategic Sinai Peninsula, where militants have recently declared their allegiance to the Islamic State and rely heavily on arms smuggled across the porous desert border between Egypt and Libya.
The strikes also come just a month before Egypt is scheduled to host a major donor’s conference at a Sinai resort to attract foreign investment needed to revive the economy after more than four years of turmoil.
Libya’s air force commander, Saqr al-Joroushi, told Egyptian state TV that the airstrikes were coordinated with the Libyan side and that they killed about 50 militants. Separately, A Libyan security official reached by The Associated Press by telephone said the Egyptian warplanes struck four IS positions in the eastern city of Darna, an extremist stronghold that was taken over by an Islamic State affiliate last year.
Two Libyan security officials said civilians, including three children and two women, were killed in the strikes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Libya’s air force meanwhile said it had carried out its own strikes in Darna, without providing further details.
The video purporting to show the mass beheading of the Coptic Christian hostages was released late Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group.
The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group – which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate – has established an affiliate less than 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video said the group now plans to “conquer Rome.”
The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the coastal city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.
It was one of the first beheading videos from an Islamic State group affiliate to come from outside the group’s core territory in Syria and Iraq, and displayed the sophisticated techniques used in previous videos.
Libya in recent months has seen the worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Gadhafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country’s many Islamic extremist groups.
The internationally recognized government has been confined to the country’s far east since Islamist-allied militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and Islamist politicians have reconstituted a previous government and parliament.
Egypt has strongly backed the internationally recognized government, and U.S. officials have said that both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates took part in a series of mysterious airstrikes targeting Islamist-allied forces last year.
Egyptian warplanes struck Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, just hours after the extremist group released a grisly video showing the beheading of several Egyptian Coptic Christians it had held hostage for weeks.
An armed forces spokesman announced the strikes on state radio, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have exploited the chaos following the 2011 uprising against dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the “intense strikes” were “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.”
“Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield to protect and safeguard the security of the country and a sword that amputates terrorism and extremism,” it said.
Egypt is already battling a burgeoning Islamist insurgency centered in the strategic Sinai Peninsula, where militants have recently declared their allegiance to the Islamic State and rely heavily on arms smuggled across the porous desert border between Egypt and Libya.
The strikes also come just a month before Egypt is scheduled to host a major donor’s conference at a Sinai resort to attract foreign investment needed to revive the economy after more than four years of turmoil.
Libya’s air force commander, Saqr al-Joroushi, told Egyptian state TV that the airstrikes were coordinated with the Libyan side and that they killed about 50 militants. Separately, A Libyan security official reached by The Associated Press by telephone said the Egyptian warplanes struck four IS positions in the eastern city of Darna, an extremist stronghold that was taken over by an Islamic State affiliate last year.
Two Libyan security officials said civilians, including three children and two women, were killed in the strikes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Libya’s air force meanwhile said it had carried out its own strikes in Darna, without providing further details.
The video purporting to show the mass beheading of the Coptic Christian hostages was released late Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group.
The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group – which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate – has established an affiliate less than 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video said the group now plans to “conquer Rome.”
The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the coastal city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.
It was one of the first beheading videos from an Islamic State group affiliate to come from outside the group’s core territory in Syria and Iraq, and displayed the sophisticated techniques used in previous videos.
Libya in recent months has seen the worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Gadhafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country’s many Islamic extremist groups.
The internationally recognized government has been confined to the country’s far east since Islamist-allied militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and Islamist politicians have reconstituted a previous government and parliament.
Egypt has strongly backed the internationally recognized government, and U.S. officials have said that both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates took part in a series of mysterious airstrikes targeting Islamist-allied forces last year.
