Egypt bombs Islamic State targets in Libya after

beheading video

This image made from a video released Feb. 15 by militants in Libya purportedly shows
Egyptian Coptic Christians in orange jumpsuits being led by masked militants. The
video later appears to show the militants killing the Egyptians. (AP)

By Erin Cunningham, Heba Habib and Daniela

Deane February 16 at 10:10 AMCAIRO Egypt said it bombed Islamic State

targets in Libya on Monday in retaliation for the extremist groups mass beheading
of Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach, gruesome killings that threatened to
ensnare Egypt into a regional conflict with the jihadists.
Egyptian fighter jets targeted Islamic State training camps and weapons stocks in
neighboring Libya in a wave of dawn airstrikes, according to a statement from the
Egyptian Armed Forces.
Libyas air force also said Monday that it had launched raids against militants in
eastern Libya in coordination with Egypt, and that the strikes had killed more than
60 militants. The chief of staff for Libyas air force told Egyptian state television
that the raids would continue into Tuesday. Egypts military did not specify where
its strikes took place.

We must take revenge for the Egyptian blood that was shed, said the statement

from Egypts military, which was posted along with a video of a warplane taking off
at night. Later, the army posted footage of four strikes it said were carried out on
Libyan soil.
Seeking retribution from murderers and criminals is our duty, the army said. Let
those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them.

Object 1

Egypt says its warplanes attacked Islamic State militant targets in Libya, after the militant group released
video claiming to show the beheading of Egyptian Coptic Christians. (AP)

The statement marked the first time Egypt has publicly acknowledged military
involvement in Libya, which has been torn apart by political chaos since an uprising
that ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gaddafi in 2011. In August, U.S.
intelligence officials said Egypt was carrying out strikes against Islamist groups in
Libya in joint operations with the United Arab Emirates. Egypt denied those claims,
however.
Islamic State militants released a horrific video Sunday of the beheading of 21
Egyptian Christians who had been taken hostage in the Libyan city of Sirte in two
separate incidents in December and January.
In the video, masked jihadists marched the Christians from Egypts Coptic minority
onto a sandy beach, and forced them down to their knees before sawing off their
heads.
The brutal killings were portrayed as retaliation against what the video referred to
as the hostile Egyptian church. Captions refer to Kamilia Shehata, an Egyptian
Coptic woman who in 2010 was rumored to have converted to Islam before police
and the church clergy isolated her. The Coptic Church in Egypt said Sunday that it
had identified the men in the video as the missing Egyptians.

The footage was the first propaganda video from the Libyan branch of Islamic
State, which in Iraq and Syria has declared a caliphate over a wide swath of
territory under its rule.
At least three militant groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State in Libya,
announcing provinces of the caliphate in the south, east and around the capital,
Tripoli, in the west. Libyas turmoil has allowed the jihadists to make inroads into
several cities.
A political crisis has split Libyas leadership and armed groups that proliferated
after the uprising into two vying governments one led by Islamists in Tripoli, and
another that is recognized by the international community in Tobruk.
In the fracturing of the country after the removal of Gaddafi, Egypt has backed
more secular forces aligned with former Libyan general Khalifa Hifter, who
launched his own offensive against Islamist militants in the eastern city of Benghazi
last spring. Egypt shares a porous 700-mile border with Libya.
Reports in the Libyan media said Monday that air raids in the eastern city of Derna,
a jihadist stronghold, had killed a number of people, but those reports could not
immediately be verified.
Videos posted on social media purported to show destroyed buildings in Derna
allegedly targeted in the strikes.
In a televised speech Sunday night following the killings, Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah al-Sissi announced that he was banning all Egyptians from entering Libya
and that Egypt reserved the right to respond to the beheadings, which he called an
abhorrent act of terrorism.
The White House also condemned the killings in a statement late Sunday, calling
them despicable and cowardly.
We offer our condolences to the families of the victims and our support to the

Egyptian government and people as they grieve for their fellow citizens, the
statement said. ISILs barbarity knows no bounds.

It added: This heinous act once again underscores the urgent need for a political
resolution to the conflict in Libya, the continuation of which only benefits terrorist
groups, including ISIL. We call on all Libyans to strongly reject this and all acts of
terrorism and to unite in the face of this shared and growing threat.
On Monday, Egypts foreign ministry called on the U.S.-led coalition striking the
Islamic State in Syria and Iraq to take action against the militant group in Libya.

Egypt has not participated in any military action against the Islamic State in Iraq or
Syria since coalition strikes began in August.
The Tripoli-based branch that claimed the beheadings also took responsibility for a
deadly attack that killed 10 people, including one American, in a luxury hotel in the
capital last month.
In the video released Sunday, the hostages wore orange jumpsuits, similar to those
worn by U.S. hostages killed by the Islamic State in Syria.
The sea where Sheik Osama bin Ladens body was hidden, we swear to Allah we

will mix with your blood, a militant wearing a brown ski mask said against a
backdrop of gray storm clouds in the video.
We will conquer Rome with Allahs permission, the militant said.

Last year, 1.6 million Egyptians were working mainly as menial laborers in Libya,
according to the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration. About 30
percent of Egyptians working in Libya are Christians, the Egyptian Commission for
Rights and Freedoms says.
The Christian victims came from the southern Egyptian province of Minya one of
the most impoverished areas of Egypt. Their families had called on Egyptian
authorities to do more to secure the hostages release.
The Egyptian people are shocked, said Safwat al-Zayyat, a retired general in

Egypts military. But there is an attempt [by the jihadists] to drag Egypt into war
in Libya, he said.
We must be cautious as, as the Americans say, of putting boots on the ground.
Erin Cunningham is an Egypt-based correspondent for The Post. She previously covered conflicts in
the Middle East and Afghanistan for the Christian Science Monitor, GlobalPost and The National.

Daniela Deane was a reporter in four countries in Europe and Asia and a
foreign affairs writer in Washington before she joined the Post in 1999. She now writes about breaking

foreign news from both London and Rome.