Islamic State group jihadists battling for control of the Syrian town of Kobane have suffered some of their heaviest losses yet in 24 hours of clashes and US-led air strikes.

Wide-ranging protests are expected Friday after weeks of calls by the Salafist Front, supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, although such protests have been rejected by the majority of other Islamist and secular currents. Security forces have warned the public to the vigilant against violence, and have announced they will ramp up their presence to protect key public institutions.

Salafist Front has called on its women supporters to stay at home during protests on Friday due to fears they will be attacked by the security forces.

On Tuesday, a court in the port city of Alexandria sentenced 78 boys aged between 13 and 17 to prison for joining demonstrations held by the Muslim Brotherhood over the past three months, a judicial official said on Wednesday.

The Muslim Brotherhood said in a Wednesday statement that it shall remain peaceful, and its official position should not be judged or understood by statements by other individuals or groups.

As Egypt’s Islamists gear up for renewed protests, fear and anticipation have increased in a country that has experienced four years of unrest and street violence.

Christian churches in Egypt are at an impasse over whether to allow divorce, and are stalling to return recommendations to the government on personal status laws.

Two police officers and a conscript were gunned down by unknown assailants while driving near al-Arish Police Station in North Sinai on Wednesday, the ministry of interior announced.

A ‎fact-finding committee mandated to investigate violent ‎events in Egypt since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president ‎Mohamed Morsi has sharply attacked Islamist parties, ‎labelling them as reactionary, undemocratic and advocating they ‎be dissolved as a condition for healthy political life in ‎the country.‎

Egypt's juvenile misdemeanour court on Wednesday sentenced 78 youth, allegedly supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, to jail terms of three to five years.

Nine "terrorists" were killed Wednesday in North Sinai, Army Spokesman Mohamed Samir said.

The June 30 fact-finding committee said on Wednesday that protesters were the first to open fire during the forcible dispersal of a pro-Mohamed Mursi camp in August 2013, leading to fighting which it says left 607 "citizens" and eight security personnel killed.

It’s been two months since Coptic Christians in an Upper Egypt village endured a traumatic sequence of events ending in heavy police abuse. The victims still have not received any justice from the state security authorities who broke the law and violated its citizen’s human rights.

Security forces arrested late Monday Mahmoud Shaaban, a recently suspended preacher at al-Azhar University, accusing him of "inciting violence", a security source said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has kicked off his first European tour with a visit to Pope Francis at the Vatican.

When the United Arab Emirates released a blacklist of “terrorist groups” this month, many prominent Western charities were shocked to find themselves cited alongside Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

While Egypt's secular political forces are ‎stepping up efforts to contest the country's ‎coming parliamentary polls as one bloc capable ‎of winning a majority, they are also doing their ‎best to eliminate a major rival from their way: the ‎ultraconservative Salafist Nour Party.‎

Egyptian church representatives will convene on Monday at the Coptic Cathedral in Abbassiya to draft its notes on the personal status law, which currently does not allow Egypt's Coptic Christians to legally divorce and remarry.

A military court of appeals turned down on Monday a challenge filed by Jamaa Islamiya leader Safwat Abdel Ghani and four others against their prison sentence, therefore upholding the sentence.

The armed forces killed on Sunday 11 "terrorists" during raids in the Sinai Peninsula, its spokesman said on Monday.

Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood welcomed on Sunday a call for protests scheduled for Friday, November 28 under the banner of “imposing Egypt’s Islamic identity”.