Egypt’s affiliate of the Islamic State group has confirmed the death of its chief, which comes two weeks after the military announced the killing during an operation in the North Sinai.
In a statement shared online by accounts affiliated to the group on Thursday, the group said that Abu Doaa Al-Ansari along with other fighters were killed while "countering a military campaign by the apostate army."
On 4 August, the Egyptian army said it had killed Al-Ansari along with his top aides and dozens of others jihadists in a series of airstrikes. It did not say when the operation took place.
Militants in parts of the North Sinai region have spearheaded an insurgency against the army and police since the 2013 overthrow Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis was the original name of the group, which now calls itself Sinai Province. The group, which has claimed most of the deadly violence over the past year, swore allegiance to the Islamic State group in November 2014.
It said in its statement that a new chief, Sheikh Abdullah, has been named, while warning that worse and "more bitter" attacks are yet to come.
The military has carried out several campaigns to crush insurgents and cut off their arms supplies.
The army said it had killed 88 extremists in the third phase of its 'Right of the Martyr' campaign in May, and that another 22 were killed in a multi-day operation early in June.
