CAIRO // The Islamic State of Iraq and ther Levant (ISIL), fighting to redraw the map of the Middle East, has been coaching Egypt’s most dangerous militant group, complicating efforts to stabilise the biggest Arab nation.
Confirmation that ISIL , currently the most successful of the region’s jihadi groups, is extending its influence to Egypt will sound alarm bells in Cairo, where the authorities are already facing a security challenge from home-grown militants.
A senior commander from the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis, which has killed hundreds of members of the Egyptian security forces over the last year, said ISIL has provided instructions on how to operate more effectively.
“They teach us how to carry out operations. We communicate through the internet,” the commander, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.
“They don’t give us weapons or fighters. But they teach us how to create secret cells, consisting of five people. Only one person has contact with other cells.”
Militant groups and the Egyptian state are old foes. Some of Al Qaeda’s most notorious commanders, including its current leader Ayman Al Zawahri, are Egyptian.
One Egyptian president after another has crushed militant groups but they have always resurfaced.
The success of ISIL in seizing large parts of Syria and Iraq has raised concerns in Egypt, where authorities are battling Ansar as well as militants who have capitalised on the chaos in post-Qaddafi Libya to set up over the border.
ISIL became the first jihadi group to defeat an Arab army in a major operation after steamrolling through northern Iraq in June almost unopposed by the Iraqi military.
Unlike al-Qaeda, which specialises in hit-and-run operations and suicide bombings, ISIL acts like an army, seizing and holding territory, a new kind of challenge for western-backed Arab states.
Army offensives have squeezed Ansar, forcing its members to flee to other parts of Egypt, the commander said. But it still poses a security threat.
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has expressed concerns about militants over the Libyan frontier. Security officials say these groups are inspired by ISIL, an offshoot of Al Qaeda notorious for beheadings and mass executions, most recently of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Mr El Sisi, who as army chief toppled Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last year after mass protests against his rule and then cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood, has restored some political stability.
But militant groups still present a major challenge. Security officials say thousands of Egyptian militants have joined ISIL’s jihad in Iraq and Syria and authorities are concerned they could return home to fight the government.
That would pile pressure on Egyptian security forces who have failed to end a campaign of bombings and shootings that killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Mr Morsi’s fall.
Egyptian security officials say leaders of ISIL and Ansar have established contacts. Meanwhile, militants based in Libya have also forged ties with Ansar, creating a complex web.
Ansar recently said it had beheaded four Egyptians, accusing them of providing Israel with intelligence for an air strike that killed three of its fighters.
Four headless corpses were found in the Sinai Peninsula. It was the first time that any decapitations had been made public in Egypt, a strategic US ally which has a peace treaty with Israel and controls the Suez Canal, a key global shipping route.
In a video on Twitter, armed men in black masks stood over the kneeling captives as one of the militants read out a statement. Minutes later, the four men had their heads cut off.
The Ansar commander, who said his group had contacted ISIL for advice, described the beheadings as a clear message that anyone cooperating with the group’s enemies would face a similar fate. “The beheadings had a purpose,” he said.
The violence suggested a new level of radicalism in Egypt, where security crackdowns, political violence and street protests have hammered the economy since the “Arab Spring” uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
“Ansar and ISIL definitely have ties but there are no ISIL members in Egypt,” said a security official.
“There is definitely coordination between Ansar, the militants in Libya and ISIL leaders.”
The security official said Egyptian authorities have handed airport officials lists of Egyptians who went abroad to wage jihad.
“There are some people who we know are coming back to carry out attacks so we arrest them. The same goes for others who come back to visit their families,” he said.
“There is a third type who comes back to recruit. We just watch him until the time is right to move in.”
The movement of Ansar militants from the Sinai to towns and cities outside the peninsula could make it more difficult for intelligence agencies to track the group.
“We have trouble working in Sinai. It’s easier elsewhere,” said the Ansar commander, adding that fighters were benefiting from advice provided by ISIL.
“They are teaching us how to attack security forces, the element of surprise,” he said. “They told us to plant bombs then wait 12 hours so that the man planting the device has enough time to escape from the town he is in.”
The commander said bombings not carried out by Ansar suggested new militant groups had appeared in Egypt, adding that there is a flow of militants both ways across the Libyan border.
“There are others operating in Egypt. We don’t know anything about them,” he said. “We have individuals who went to Libya. We lost contact.”
Asked about pressure from Egypt’s military, one of the biggest in the world, the commander said security offensives had created new enemies for the state.
“Every time one of us is killed, two or three others join. Usually relatives of those who are killed.”
* Reuters
Results:
6.30pm: Maiden | US$45,000 (Dirt) | 1,400 metres
Winner: Tabarak, Royston Ffrench (jockey), Rashed Bouresly (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap | $175,000 (Turf) | 3,200m
Winner: Dubhe, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Group 3 | $250,000 (D) | 1,600m
Winner: Estihdaaf, Christophe Soumillon, Saeed bin Suroor
8.15pm: Handicap | $135,000 (T) | 1,800m
Winner: Nordic Lights, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
8.50pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 Group 2 | $450,000 (D) | 1,900m
Winner: North America, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
9.25pm: Handicap | $175,000 (T) | 1,200m
Winner: Mazzini, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
10pm: Handicap | $135,000 (T) | 1,400m.
Winner: Mubtasim, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
RESULT
Chelsea 2
Willian 13'
Ross Barkley 64'
Liverpool 0
THE NEW BATCH'S FOCUS SECTORS
AiFlux – renewables, oil and gas
DevisionX – manufacturing
Event Gates – security and manufacturing
Farmdar – agriculture
Farmin – smart cities
Greener Crop – agriculture
Ipera.ai – space digitisation
Lune Technologies – fibre-optics
Monak – delivery
NutzenTech – environment
Nybl – machine learning
Occicor – shelf management
Olymon Solutions – smart automation
Pivony – user-generated data
PowerDev – energy big data
Sav – finance
Searover – renewables
Swftbox – delivery
Trade Capital Partners – FinTech
Valorafutbol – sports and entertainment
Workfam – employee engagement
Results
Elite men
1. Amare Hailemichael Samson (ERI) 2:07:10
2. Leornard Barsoton (KEN) 2:09:37
3. Ilham Ozbilan (TUR) 2:10:16
4. Gideon Chepkonga (KEN) 2:11:17
5. Isaac Timoi (KEN) 2:11:34
Elite women
1. Brigid Kosgei (KEN) 2:19:15
2. Hawi Feysa Gejia (ETH) 2:24:03
3. Sintayehu Dessi (ETH) 2:25:36
4. Aurelia Kiptui (KEN) 2:28:59
5. Emily Kipchumba (KEN) 2:29:52
'Gehraiyaan'
Director:Shakun Batra
Stars:Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa
Rating: 4/5
RESULTS
6.30pm: Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: Hypothetical, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
7.05pm: Meydan Sprint – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (Turf) 1,000m
Winner: Equilateral, Andrea Atzeni, Charles Hills
7.40pm: Curlin Stakes – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (D) 2,200m
Winner: New Trails, Fernando Jara, Ahmad bin Harmash
8.15pm: UAE Oaks – Group 3 (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Mnasek, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8.50pm: Zabeel Mile – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: D’bai, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
9.25pm: Balanchine – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner: Summer Romance, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
10pm: Al Shindagha Sprint – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Al Tariq, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Klipit
Started: 2022
Founders: Venkat Reddy, Mohammed Al Bulooki, Bilal Merchant, Asif Ahmed, Ovais Merchant
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain
Funding: $4 million
Investors: Privately/self-funded
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
More on Quran memorisation:
SPEC SHEET: APPLE IPHONE 14
Display: 6.1" Super Retina XDR OLED, 2532 x 1170, 460ppi, HDR, True Tone, P3, 1200 nits
Processor: A15 Bionic, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 6GB
Capacity: 128/256/512GB
Platform: iOS 16
Main camera: Dual 12MP main (f/1.5) + 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.4); 2x optical, 5x digital; Photonic Engine, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 4, Portrait Lighting
Main camera video: 4K @ 24/25/3060fps, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps, HD @ 30fps; HD slo-mo @ 120/240fps; night, time lapse, cinematic, action modes; Dolby Vision, 4K HDR
Front camera: 12MP TrueDepth (f/1.9), Photonic Engine, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 4; Animoji, Memoji; Portrait Lighting
Front camera video: 4K @ 24/25/3060fps, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps, HD slo-mo @ 120fps; night, time lapse, cinematic, action modes; Dolby Vision, 4K HDR
Battery: 3279 mAh, up to 20h video, 16h streaming video, 80h audio; fast charge to 50% in 30m; MagSafe, Qi wireless charging
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC (Apple Pay)
Biometrics: Face ID
I/O: Lightning
Cards: Dual eSIM / eSIM + SIM (US models use eSIMs only)
Colours: Blue, midnight, purple, starlight, Product Red
In the box: iPhone 14, USB-C-to-Lightning cable, one Apple sticker
Price: Dh3,399 / Dh3,799 / Dh4,649
A QUIET PLACE
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, Djimon Hounsou
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Rating: 4/5
Friday's schedule at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 qualifying, 10:15am
Formula 2, practice 11:30am
Formula 1, first practice, 1pm
GP3 qualifying session, 3.10pm
Formula 1 second practice, 5pm
Formula 2 qualifying, 7pm
The specs: 2019 GMC Yukon Denali
Price, base: Dh306,500
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Power: 420hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 621Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.9L / 100km
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
RESULT
Uruguay 3 Russia 0
Uruguay: Suárez (10'), Cheryshev (23' og), Cavani (90')
Russia: Smolnikov (Red card: 36')
Man of the match: Diego Godin (Uruguay)
How Filipinos in the UAE invest
A recent survey of 10,000 Filipino expatriates in the UAE found that 82 per cent have plans to invest, primarily in property. This is significantly higher than the 2014 poll showing only two out of 10 Filipinos planned to invest.
Fifty-five percent said they plan to invest in property, according to the poll conducted by the New Perspective Media Group, organiser of the Philippine Property and Investment Exhibition. Acquiring a franchised business or starting up a small business was preferred by 25 per cent and 15 per cent said they will invest in mutual funds. The rest said they are keen to invest in insurance (3 per cent) and gold (2 per cent).
Of the 5,500 respondents who preferred property as their primary investment, 54 per cent said they plan to make the purchase within the next year. Manila was the top location, preferred by 53 per cent.
Company profile
Company name: Nestrom
Started: 2017
Co-founders: Yousef Wadi, Kanaan Manasrah and Shadi Shalabi
Based: Jordan
Sector: Technology
Initial investment: Close to $100,000
Investors: Propeller, 500 Startups, Wamda Capital, Agrimatico, Techstars and some angel investors
Company name: Farmin
Date started: March 2019
Founder: Dr Ali Al Hammadi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: AgriTech
Initial investment: None to date
Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
More from Neighbourhood Watch
THE SPECS
Engine: 2.4-litre four-cylinder
Power: 210hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: Starting from Dh89,900
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Carzaty, now Kavak
Based: Dubai
Launch year: Carzaty launched in 2018, Kavak in the GCC launched in 2022
Number of employees: 140
Sector: Automotive
Funding: Carzaty raised $6m in equity and $4m in debt; Kavak plans $130m investment in the GCC
About Tenderd
Started: May 2018
Founder: Arjun Mohan
Based: Dubai
Size: 23 employees
Funding: Raised $5.8m in a seed fund round in December 2018. Backers include Y Combinator, Beco Capital, Venturesouq, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, SOMA, Dynamo and Global Founders Capital
RACECARD
9pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 2,000m
9.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m
10pm Al Ain Cup – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (D) 2,000m
10.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
11pm Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
11.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
12am Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
The Beach Bum
Director: Harmony Korine
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg
Two stars
BIRD BOX BARCELONA
Directors: David and Alex Pastor
Stars: Georgina Campbell, Mario Casas, Diego Calva
Rating: 2/5
TYPES OF ONLINE GIG WORK
Design, multimedia and creative work: Logo design, website design, visualisations
Business and professional management: Legal or management consulting, architecture
Business and professional support: Research support, proofreading, bookkeeping
Sales and marketing support: Search engine optimisation, social media marketing
Data entry, administrative, and clerical: Data entry tasks, virtual assistants
IT, software development and tech: Data analyst, back-end or front-end developers
Writing and translation: Content writing, ghost writing, translation
Online microtasks: Image tagging, surveys
Source: World Bank
Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain
Author: Charlotte Lydia Riley
Publisher: Bodley Head
Pages: 384
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
EMIRATES'S REVISED A350 DEPLOYMENT SCHEDULE
Edinburgh: November 4 (unchanged)
Bahrain: November 15 (from September 15); second daily service from January 1
Kuwait: November 15 (from September 16)
Mumbai: January 1 (from October 27)
Ahmedabad: January 1 (from October 27)
Colombo: January 2 (from January 1)
Muscat: March 1 (from December 1)
Lyon: March 1 (from December 1)
Bologna: March 1 (from December 1)
Source: Emirates
Brief scores:
Newcastle United 1
Perez 23'
Wolverhampton Rovers 2
Jota 17', Doherty 90'+4
Red cards: Yedlin 57'
Man of the Match: Diogo Jota (Wolves)
THE SPECS
Jaguar F-Pace SVR
Engine: 5-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 680Nm
Price: Dh465,071
2024 Dubai Marathon Results
Women’s race:
1. Tigist Ketema (ETH) 2hrs 16min 7sec
2. Ruti Aga (ETH) 2:18:09
3. Dera Dida (ETH) 2:19:29
Men's race:
1. Addisu Gobena (ETH) 2:05:01
2. Lemi Dumicha (ETH) 2:05:20
3. DejeneMegersa (ETH) 2:05:42