TEHRAN (FNA)- A leader of a Sinai-based Wahhabi militant group was killed, according to Egyptian security sources.


Sources told Ma'an that 62-year-old Muhammad Hussein Muharib, nicknamed "Abu Muneer," was shot dead in clashes with Egyptian troops in al-Hura village South of the North Sinai city of Sheikh Zuweid on Tuesday.

Army intelligence, say the sources, discovered a hideout where Muharib and his son Mansour stayed.

Troops deployed in the area and surrounded the hideout before very fierce clashes broke out between troops and fighters guarding Muharib. Muharib and his son were killed in the ensuing firefight.

Egyptian intelligence accuses Muharab of masterminding the second Rafah massacre in which 25 Egyptian officers were killed.

Egyptian armed forces launched large-scale military action against militants in the Sinai Peninsula in September, in what officials described as the largest mobilization of force in the area since the 1973 war with Israel.

The military action comes in the wake of rising instability and almost daily attacks in the region, following a July 3 coup by the Egyptian military which unseated President Mohammad Mursi.

Armed groups have taken advantage of the relatively lawless situation in the Sinai to increase levels of smuggling and human trafficking.

By Fars News Agency�

 

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