Reports of Egyptian youth joining ISIS campaign causes concern
The story of Islam Yakan, a recent graduate of Ain Shams University, has been picked up by Egyptian media sites after pictures from his Twitter account depicting him wielding a sword spread across the internet. Yakan claims to have joined the Islamic State (also known as Daish and previously as the Islamic State in al-Sham (ISIS)) in the name of jihad. Aside from Yakan, there are also reports that members of the recently established Ansar Beit al-Maqdis have allegedly traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside ISIS and adopt their skills and tactics. With local terror attacks on the rise, many fear that regional jihadi groups may be eying Egypt, but analysts say while those groups may attract disaffected youth, they are unlikely to gain ground here.
