Ansar Beit al-Maqdis
| Ansar Bait al-Maqdis | |
|---|---|
|
أنصار بيت المقدس Participant in the Sinai insurgency and Gaza–Israel conflict |
|
.png) |
|
| Active | 2011–10 November 2014 |
| Ideology | Salafist jihadism |
| Leaders | Waleed Waked (POW) Ibrahim Mohamed Freg † Shadi el-Manaei |
| Headquarters | Sinai Peninsula |
| Area of operations |
 Egypt Gaza Strip
|
| Size | 1,000–2,000 (before merger with ISIL) |
| Became |
Wilayat Sinai (in Sinai) Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade (in Gaza) |
| Allies |
 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
|
| Opponents |
Egypt Israel
|
| Battles and wars | Sinai insurgency |
Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (Arabic: أنصار بيت المقدس Anṣār Bayt al-Maqdis, "Supporters of the Holy House"), or Ansar Jerusalem ("Supporters of Jerusalem") was the name of a jihadist extremist militant group based in Egypt.
From 2011 to 2013, operated in the Sinai Peninsula, focused its efforts on Israel and the gas pipeline to Jordan. In mid-2013, it began a campaign of attacks on Egyptian security forces, and in November 2014 the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Most of the group became a branch of ISIL, renaming itself ISIL-Sinai Province.
Ansar Bait al-Maqdis emerged from a number of indigenous Salafi jihadist groups in the Sinai Peninsula. Some of these groups had ties to Salafi jihadis in Gaza or leaders that had previously fought abroad, including with al-Qaeda.
The group rose from the chaos in Sinai that began with the uprising in January 2011. Its operations increased in the wake of the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état, shifting its main target from Israel to the Egyptian security forces, declaring the Egyptian army and police apostates that can be killed.
The group was believed to have been the main group behind the militant activity in the Sinai. From September 2013 to late January 2014, the group claimed responsibility for a rapid succession of mass scale attacks throughout Egypt, including the attempted assassination of the Egyptian interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim. The group recruited Bedouins as well as other Egyptians and people of other nationalities. Ten leaders from the group were reported to have escaped from the Sinai to Gaza and Marsa Matrouh in late 2013.
...
Wikipedia