Sinai Province (Militant Group)

Sinai Province
ولاية سيناء (Wilayah Sayna) Participant in the Sinai insurgency
Logo of Wilayat Sinai
Active	13 November 2014–present
Ideology	Salafi jihadism Wahhabism
Leaders	Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Leader of ISIL) Abu Hajar al-Hashemi (governor/wali) Abu Osama al-Masri Ashraf Ali Hassanein Gharabali †
Headquarters	Sinai Peninsula
Area of operations	Egypt
Size	1,000–1,500
Part of	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Originated as	Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
Allies	Ansar al-Sharia (Egypt)
Opponents	Egypt  Israel
Battles and wars	Sinai insurgency, Gaza-Israel conflict

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Sinai Province (Arabic: الدولة الإسلاميةولاية سيناء‎‎, ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām – Wilayah Sīnāʼ), or ISIL-SP, is militant Islamist group active in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.

Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (ABM) has been part of the Sinai insurgency and had been active especially the Sinai since 2011 after the deterioration of security in the Sinai, focusing its efforts on Israel and the Arab gas pipeline to Jordan. After former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was deposed in the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état, Egypt also began conducting a crackdown on jihadist groups in Sinai and elsewhere. ABM and other jihadist groups intensified their campaign of attacks on Egyptian security forces. On 13 November 2014, ABM pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and adopted the name Sinai Province (Wilayah Sīnāʼ) claiming to be a branch of ISIL.

The leader of the group is Abu Osama al-Masri, but not much personal information is available.

During 2014, Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (ABM) sent emissaries to ISIL in Syria to seek financial support, weapons and tactical advice. On 10 November 2014, many members of ABM took an oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIL. It adopted the name Sinai Province and has since carried out attacks, mostly in North Sinai, but also in other parts of Egypt. Security officials say militants based in Libya have established ties with Sinai Province.

The group has killed hundreds of Egyptian security personnel, and has also been responsible for attacks on civilians, including the killing of Croatian engineer Tomislav Salopek, on August 2015.