Egyptian security sources said that last night during heavy clashes with Islamist militant groups in northern Sinai, eight takfiri members were killed (takfiris are militant Muslims who kill other Muslims on the accusation that the latter are not Muslim enough).
The clashes took place in the region of Sheikh Zawid, where earlier reports had said militant groups were terrorizing the civilian population and using women and children as human shields. Sources also said that several weapon caches were destroyed or seized.
Six of the eight slain were members of the jihadi organization Ansar Bayt al-Muqadis, an organization founded in 2011 and primarily focused, as evinced by its name — “Supporters of Jerusalem” — on attacking Israel from northern Sinai.
However, now that the Muslim Brotherhood and former president Morsi have been ousted in Egypt, the group has set its eyes on the military rulers of the nation, accusing them of apostasy from Islam. Among other things, the group claimed responsibility for the devastating car bomb that killed four people in Cairo last week.
Nabil Na’im, a former member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (which was formerly headed by al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri) has been exposing the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic jihadis, including al-Qaeda, and says that the group is funded by Khairat al-Shater, the currently imprisoned number two man of the Brotherhood.
Of note is the fact that, although al-Shater was never part of the Morsi government, U.S. diplomats often met with him, including Ambassador Anne Patterson and Sen. John McCain.