Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that militants of the Islamic State (IS) group who were based in its Syrian ‘capital’, Raqqa, have moved out from the city and relocated to deserts in Egypt as part of a deal brokered between the US and Kurdish militias, according to Turkish state-television, TRT. According to Erdoğan, the deal – which was agreed with the BYD Kurdish militia – will enable the US to use militants to conduct military activity against Egypt. Analysis indicates the messages reveal his fighters suffered significant losses in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, with surviving IS militants fleeing the area and heading towards Libya. Their displacement is believed to be a result of repeated counter-attacks by the Egyptian army against the IS-affiliated ‘Sinai Province’. Egyptian security forces have since been engaged in a war against terrorism in North Sinai, but it often leaks out of the region.

Source: Egypt Independent December 06, 2017 09:45 UTC