Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II attempted on Monday to reassure Egyptians after the recent attacks on Copts in North Sinai, stressing that the Coptic families that have fled the governorate out of fear of terrorist violence will return to the city "when the time is right." At the start of this month, the Coptic Orthodox Church announced that 143 Christian families had fled North Sinai to Ismailiya after a spate of killings of Christians by Islamist militants in the governorate.

Islamic State's branch in the Sinai Peninsula posted a video on Tuesday depicting the beheading of two men the militant Islamist group said it had found guilty of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. The video, posted on a Telegram channel often used by IS, showed the group forming a religious police unit known as the Hasbah in northern Sinai, where it has waged an insurgency for years. The rugged, thinly populated peninsula borders Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal.

Islamic State-affiliate Province of Sinai released a promotional video on Tuesday showing members of the organization carrying out what it alleges to be Hisba, or religious policing. The group claimed the footage is from locations in North Sinai, which it did not identify. Hisba is defined by religious scholars as the practice of commanding virtue and forbidding vice, professor of Islamic law professor at Al-Azhar University Ahmed Kareema told the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. He added that Hisba should be conducted by a select few who must be efficient, fair, knowledgeable and capable, describing it as a type of guardianship falling to those who have been entrusted with religious matters.

The Syrian army is preparing to launch a "huge" operation against the last rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta unless the Jaish al-Islam insurgent group agrees to hand over the area, a pro-Syrian government newspaper reported on Wednesday. Routed by the Russian-backed Syrian army, rebels in other parts of eastern Ghouta are leaving in convoys to insurgent-held areas in the northwest under withdrawal deals that are restoring President Bashar al-Assad s control.

Communities drawn into conflict after Libya s 2011 uprising have no choice but to reconcile if the country is to recover, said the mayor of a town that was left isolated following fighting four years ago. Mustafa al-Baroni, mayor of the western town of Zintan, also warned that politicians from rival bodies which have overrun their terms are scheming to cling to power, blocking progress at a local level. Zintan emerged as an important military power-base in the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi seven years ago. However, in 2014 its forces lost their footing in the capital Tripoli to rivals from western Libyan towns including Misrata as the conflict escalated.

The Egyptian police said they had killed six Hasm terrorist group members believed to be behind a failed assassination attempt on Alexandria s security chief on Saturday, which left two policemen dead and injured several others. In an official statement, Egypt s interior ministry said the terrorists were killed on Sunday dawn following a shootout in a residential apartment in Beheira governorate, around 89 kilometres from the Mediterranean city which witnessed Saturday s attack.

On 13 November 2015, Paris was shaken by simultaneous terrorist attacks targeting concert-goers at the Bataclan theatre, the crowd outside a football stadium, and diners at a number of nearby restaurants and bars. The ISIS-affiliated attackers, both gunmen and suicide bombers, killed 130 people and injured hundreds more. Less than a year later, a man drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the southern city of Nice, killing 86.

Ninety years ago today, Hassan Al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood group, which went on to become a major player in both Egyptian and regional politics.‎ What follows below is not by any means a complete analysis of the role played by the group over the past nine ‎decades, but rather a collection of articles published during interesting times by both ‎Ahram Weekly and Ahram Online, with the aim of marking the day.

Cairo Criminal Court sentenced nine defendants to life imprisonment (25 years according to the Egyptian penal code) and another 13 defendants to prison for 10 years over charges of establishing an illegal group, including “specific advanced operations committees”. The court verdict was issued by the court s top judge Shaban al-Shami and both judges Mohammed Abdel Sattar and Osama Abdel Zaher.

Syrian regime and allied forces battled to suppress the last pockets of resistance in and around Damascus Tuesday while the beleaguered Kurds in the north braced for further Turkish advances. The simultaneous assaults have sparked one of the worst humanitarian emergencies since the start of the Syrian conflict seven years ago, with aid groups struggling to gain access to the masses of displaced civilians.

Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman Tamer El-Refaie has said in a statement that 36 takfiris were killed and 345 were arrested by army and police forces during the last five days of the counterterrorism Operation Sinai 2018, which started on 9 February in Sinai and other parts of the country. The Arabic word "takfiri" refers to extremist Sunni Muslims who accuse other Muslims and followers of other religions of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

Member of the Egyptian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Tarek El Kholy told local media that a recent request by British parliamentarians to visit former President Mohamed Morsi in prison represents an “unacceptable interference in Egypt’s internal affairs”. Morsi has been in custody since he was ousted from power in July 2013 after mass protests led to a military intervention by the Egyptian army.

Thousands of Syrian civilians fled from a rebel pocket in eastern Ghouta on Thursday, crossing by foot to army positions in the first mass exodus from the besieged enclave since Syrian government forces launched an assault to capture it a month ago. Men, women and children staggered under the weight of blankets, bags and suitcases as they walked along a dirt road to army lines on the outskirts of Hammouriyeh town. Some wept.

Gaza s Islamist rulers Hamas widened an investigation Wednesday into a bomb explosion that targeted Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah as he made a rare visit to the strip a day earlier. The interior ministry in Gaza said it had launched a "high-level investigative committee" into the bomb attack, which was a further blow to faltering reconciliation talks between Hamas and president Mahmoud Abbas s secular Fatah party.

Turkey said Tuesday its army and allied rebels have surrounded the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, raising the prospect of another devastating siege in the country s long conflict. Syria s war enters its eighth year this week with clashes raging on several fronts, including Afrin and the besieged rebel pockets of Eastern Ghouta, which saw their first medical evacuations of civilians on Tuesday.

At least 25 civilians and members of government forces have been killed in northern Iraq since late Sunday in attacks by the Islamic State group, officials said. The attacks came despite Baghdad s declaration of victory over the jihadist group late last year. "Islamic State (IS) terrorists who had set up a fake roadblock on a major road have killed 15 people," a police officer told AFP.

Pope Francis on Sunday expressed concern over national policies dictated by fear, speaking only one week after Italy s general elections which brought populist and anti-immigrant parties to the forefront. The pontiff, who has made the defence of migrants a key pillar of his five-year papacy, has repeatedly called for decisive action to solve political problems causing many to flee from their home countries.

Egypt s Armed Forces spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said that Egyptian army and police personnel carrying out Operation Sinai 2018 are performing their duties with high morale,adding that 105 takfiris have been killed since the anti-terrorism operation started on 9 February. The Arabic word "takfiri" refers to extremist Sunni Muslims who accuse other Muslims of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

Syrian government forces pounded eastern Ghouta with air strikes on Wednesday in an effort to slice the rebel enclave in two as they intensified a campaign to deal the opposition its biggest defeat since 2016. The Syrian government assault of the densely populated area on the outskirts of Damascus, which began more than two weeks ago, has become one of the fiercest campaigns of the war now entering its eighth year, with bombardment killing hundreds.

Reverend Boulis Halim, spokesman for Egypt s Coptic church, described the visit of Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman to Abbaseya Cathedral as “a message of peace to the world and a new chapter in Saudi-church relations.” In a phone interview with Al-Asema show on Monday evening, Reverend Halim said, “not only is this a message of peace, but it supports tolerance in the Arab world and is a sign of improved relations between Saudi Arabia and the church.”

Eight people were arrested in Brussels following counter-terror raids amid signs of a plot in preparation, a source close to the investigation said. All eight were arrested Sunday in Molenbeek, an immigrant district linked to the Paris and Brussels terror attacks, following raids in Belgium, the source said.