Egyptian air raids kill 19 Daesh fighters in Sinai

The Egyptian military has said that air raids in northern Sinai have killed 19 members of Daesh in Egypt including three of its leaders.

The military did not name which leaders it had killed but said one was among the group’s most prominent members. Another was the head of its Islamic law committee and the third in charge of interrogations.

Daesh in Egypt began by targeting police and security forces and in recent months have stepped up attacks on the country’s Christian community. On Palm Sunday twin bomb attacks hit two churches in Egypt and on Tuesday gunmen attacked a police checkpoint near St. Catherine’s Monastery killing one police officer.

Egypt’s methods of cracking down on the group have been called into question by human rights groups who accuse them of extrajudically executing people who they say are affiliated and forcibly disappearing others then staging counter-terror raids to cover up their killing.