CAIRO (AP) – Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a jihadi organization based in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula that has carried out several attacks targeting Egyptian security forces, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
The announcement reflects the growing regional appeal of the Islamic State, a radical al-Qaida breakaway group that has carved out a self-styled caliphate in Syria and Iraq and demanded the loyalty of the world’s Muslims.
The announcement pledging loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi came in an audio speech posted late Sunday on the Egyptian militant group’s official Twitter account and a militant website. Last week the group had denied on its Twitter account reports saying it had pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi.
The unknown speaker in the recording released Sunday says Ansar Beit al-Maqdis decided to join the Islamic State group, “whose emergence resembles a new dawn raising the banner of monotheism.”
The speaker said that al-Baghdadi was “chosen by God” to establish a new Islamic caliphate after “Muslims suffered decades of humiliation.”