Egyptian officials, including the foreign minister, have acknowledged coordination between the two groups but have said there are no Isis fighters in the country. Isis, also known as the Islamic State, controls swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria where it has proclaimed a caliphate.
Egypt has faced an Islamist insurgency since the army ousted President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood last year.
‘Rig the roads with explosives for them. Attack their bases. Raid their homes. Cut off their heads. Do not let them feel secure,’ IS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said in a statement released online.
He praised Egyptian militants for carrying out ‘blessed operations against the guards of the Jews, the soldiers of Sisi, the new Pharaoh of Egypt’.
He added: ‘O America, O allies of America, and O crusaders, know that the matter is more dangerous than you have imagined and greater than you have envisioned. We have warned you that today we are in a new era.
‘If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, kill him in any manner or way however it may be.’
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief last year led Mursi’s ouster following mass protests, has expressed concerns about Islamist militants in Egypt and in other parts of the Middle East.
A militant from the Sinai-based al-Qaeda-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has killed hundreds of Egyptian security forces over the last year, has told Reuters IS has provided instructions on how to operate more effectively.
On Sunday, a bomb attack beside the Egyptian foreign ministry in Cairo claimed by a militant group killed three policemen, including a key witness in a trial of Mursi.
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By Ted Thornhill, REUTERS, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2764918/Isis-militants-call-alllies-spread-terror-beheading-Egypt-strike-near-tourist-resort-Sharm-el-Sheikh.html