To counter claims that top militant figure Shadi El-Menei is still alive, Egypt's Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim has confirmed the news of his killing, state news agency MENA reported late on Monday.
Shadi El-Menei, head of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (Champions of Jerusalem), was reported killed along with three other fighters in a Thursday shootout.
Two days later, his militant group denied his death in a statement published in online forums and published pictures of El-Menei reading his death reports. They also denied he was the group's leader.
Interior Minister Ibrahim told MENA that El-Menei's body will be DNA tested for further corroboration. He said the police "have gone a long way in the fight against terrorism".
Ibrahim El-Menei, the militant's uncle, told Ahram Online in a telephone interview on Monday however, that his nephew had not been killed.
"Shadi was roaming around in his town of Mahdiya on Sunday and everybody saw him," the uncle said.
An informed local said the town had not received any bodies for burial in the past few days.
Linked to Al-Qaeda, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has claimed responsibility for most of the terrorist attacks that followed the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last summer.
Security forces have since launched then an offensive to counter the insurgency.
Attacks initially centred in the restive Sinai Peninsula before they began to spread to the capital and other Nile Delta cities.
Nearly 500 police and soldiers personnel have been killed in shootings and bombings since Morsi's removal, according to a government tally.
The army regularly announces news of the deaths and arrests of alleged militants during their air and ground raids.
