The mouth of the tunnel is hardly visible on a muddy hillside overlooking Mosul, where fighting now rages between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants.

Last February, an Egyptian court of urgent matters designated the militant group Hasm a terrorist organisation, banning its activity in the country.

The number of Coptic families who have fled North Sinai’s El-Arish for Port Said after a series attacks on Christians has risen to 28 families with 93 members, priest Armia Fahmy, the spokesperson of the Port Said Coptic archbishopric, told Ahram Arabic website on Sunday.

Copts in Nazlet al-Nakhl village in Minya claim to have been banned from performing the mass by security on Sunday over alleged fears of attacks by extremists against them.

Al-Qaeda has confirmed that top leader Abu Khayr al-Masri, believed to be the organisation's number two, was killed in a drone strike by the US-led coalition in Syria. The killing of Masri, described by analysts as "jihadi royalty," could serve as a major security coup for US President Donald Trump early in his presidency.

Vowing to plant their flag in China and that blood will "flow in rivers", a video released this week purportedly by the Islamic State group shows ethnic Uighur fighters training in Iraq, underscoring what Beijing sees as a serious threat.

Amnesty International says the Egyptian government has failed to protect hundreds of Coptic Christians who fled their homes in northern Sinai after a series of attacks by Islamic State militants. The London-based rights group on Wednesday said the government's response fits with a pattern of failing to protect the embattled minority, adding that after other sectarian attacks the government sought reconciliation agreements between communities rather than prosecuting those responsible.

The leading religious authority in Sunni Islam has lashed out at supporters of abortion rights, sexual reassignment and globalization, saying they aim to "annihilate all Abrahamic religions." Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, head of Egypt's Al-Azhar, said in a speech Tuesday that "those advocating human rights and global peace" are often secretly colluding with terrorists, and that globalization threatens the unique character of different nations.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said his government is providing all necessary measures to help residents who have fled Arish, a city in Egypt's North Sinai governorate, after the Islamic State group killed several members of the Christian community.

While Saint Anthony's Church in Ismailia declared the state of emergency, Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY) was there, as both the church and the state attempt to contain the crisis of the Coptic Christian families displaced from northern Sinai. AMAY spent hours with the children who are being treated psychologically to overcome the crisis, Families are flocking to the church and others have been housed; children play in the gardens of Ismailia; but an atmosphere of ambiguity surrounds the fate of about 100 Coptic Christian families forced by terrorism to abandon their homes in Al-Arish city of North Sinai, leaving everything behind to take the worries and sorrows of displacement.

Anonymous people wrote phrases and slogans bearing the name of "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist groups on the walls at Al-Mamar Square in Ismailia, as well as on the walls of the Coptic Christian cemetery of the city.

Egyptian security officials and a tribal leader say that Islamic State militants in the volatile northern Sinai region have abducted four civilians accused of cooperating with the military and killed at least two of them.

Egypt has rehoused 118 Coptic families who fled North Sinai after a spate of killings of Christians by militants there, the parliamentary affairs minister told parliament on Sunday.

For the third consecutive day, the outflow of Coptic families deciding to flee their residences located in the North Sinai city of Al-Arish to the governorate of Ismailia is on the rise. This exodus followed an escalation of murders targeting Copts by militants believed to be members of the IS-affiliated group “Sinai Province”.

The holy month of Ramadan for the hijri year 1438 will come on May 27, according to Hatem Ouda, the head of the National Research Institute for Astronomy and Geophysics. Speaking to the official MENA news agency on Thursday, Ouda said that the new moon, which marks the beginning of Ramadan, will not be sighted on Friday May 26, which will be the last day of the lunar month of Shaaban, the month before Ramadan.

Turkey's military has changed its regulations to allow female officers to wear headscarves while on duty, defense officials said Wednesday, removing a ban on Islamic-style head coverings at an establishment that once was considered a bastion of secularism.

Egyptian security officials say suspected militants have killed two Christians in the restive north of the Sinai Peninsula, days after an Islamic State affiliate vowed to step up a wave of attacks on the embattled minority. The officials said Saad Hana, 65, was shot dead and his son Medhat, 45, was abducted and burned alive before their bodies were dumped on a roadside in al-Arish on Wednesday.

Egypt's Al-Azhar and the Vatican have resumed dialogue sessions in Cairo — focused in particular on combining efforts to combat religious extremism and terrorism — for the first time since the sessions were halted in 2010. A special seminar held at Al-Azhar University Wednesday was attended by a range of Al-Azhar scholars and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

CIA-coordinated military aid for rebels in northwest Syria has been frozen since they came under major Islamist attack last month, rebel sources said, raising doubts about foreign support key to their war against President Bashar al-Assad.

After years of strained relations, Egypt is moving closer to Hamas in Gaza, offering concessions on trade and free movement in return for moves to secure the border against Islamic State fighters who have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers in northern Sinai.

Eleven members of an Afghan family, including women and children, were killed in a grenade attack on their home in the country's volatile east, officials said Monday.