Reports from Egypt indicates that the Egyptian armed forces killed a leading member of the country’s Islamic State affiliate in a shootout outside his North Sinai home, the army spokesman said in a statement on Saturday.
Selim Suleiman al-Haram, identified in the statement as a leader of the militant group known as Sinai Province, was asked to turn himself in by a group of soldiers that surrounded his house in the town of Sheikh Zuweid, the army said.
He refused, opening fire on the troops and attempting to blow himself up before being shot dead, the army said.
Egypt is battling an increasingly brazen insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of police officers and soldiers since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule, Reuters says.
