Sinai-based militants posted a video late Friday showing an alleged Egyptian soldier they claim to have captured a week earlier.
Militants from the Sinai Province, which previously pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, said in the video that the soldier’s kidnapping came in revenge to what they described as “the massacre against the children on Sinai”, a possible reference to Egyptian army raids on militant elements in the peninsula.
The soldier identified himself with the initials of his name, noting that he belongs to Battalion 37 in Sheikh Zuwayed. He said the militants had managed to kill his colleagues and steal two tanks and other weapons.
One militant shot the soldier dead at the end of the video, before beheading another unidentified person whom they called a “spy”.
Egyptian forces have been battling militant extremists in the restive peninsula in retaliation to bloody attacks against security since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
