Egypt executes top Islamist militant for killing dozens of security men
Xinhua, December 15, 2016 Adjust font size:
A prominent Islamist militant, who had been convicted of murdering dozens of Egypt's security personnel, was executed on Thursday morning, state-run Ahram Online website reported.
Adel Habara, a leader of a Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS), was handed a second final death sentence on Monday for killing a police detective in Sharqiya governorate in 2012.
The first final death sentence was meted out on Dec. 10, convicting the militant leader of killing 25 soldiers in North Sinai governorate in Aug. 2013.
On Wednesday evening, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ratified Habara's death warrant.
Habara was arrested in Sept. 2013, and first stood trial in court in Nov. 2015.
Egypt has been facing a rising wave of terror attacks since former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was overturned by the military in July 2013.
The attacks, initially targeting security personnel in the restive Sinai Peninsula, have extended to the capital Cairo and other provinces across the country.
The latest attack was on Sunday, a day after Habara's first final death sentence, when an IS militant blew himself up in a Coptic church in Cairo, killing 25 people. Endit