Egypt Killed ISIS Leader in Cairo

“He sensed their presence and shot at them in an attempt to flee, requiring the police forces to exchange fire with him leading to his death”, the Egyptian Interior ministry said in a statement, cited by AFP.

Authorities are investigating the group’s claim that it brought down a Russian airbus in Sinai recently.

Egyptian police today killed a top Islamic State militant who was involved in many high profile terror attacks, including killing of foreigners and an assassination attempt of a Egyptian former foreign minister.

He was also responsible for planning deadly bomb attacks on the Italian consulate in Cairo and police headquarters in Cairo and the northern city of al-Mansoura, the ministry said.

Other attacks the ministry attributed to Gharabali included an attempted bombing at the ancient temple of Karnak in Luxor, the kidnapping of a Croatian citizen in Cairo, and the abduction and killing of a US engineer in a desert region past year.

The interior ministry statement said police had managed to track down Hassanein in the capital, but when they tried to arrest him as he drove a auto in a north Cairo suburb he opened fire.

Welayat Sinai, previously known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, is an ISIS-affiliated terrorist group based in Egypt’s Sinai provinces.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.