Egypt launched six air strikes on jihadist camps in Libya on Friday night, following the terrorist attack in which gunmen opened fire at a bus, killing 28 Coptic Christians, AFP reported.
State television reported six air strikes against "terror camps in Libya", specifying that jihadist training camps were hit in the eastern Libyan city of Derna. Witnesses there reported four strikes by a single aircraft.
The Egyptian military said confirmed the air strikes, adding they were ongoing.
The air strikes came hours after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said that Cairo will not “hesitate” to strike terrorism anywhere.
“Egypt will not hesitate at all to strike terrorist camps anywhere,” Sisi said in a televised address, according to Al-Arabiya. He added that Cairo does not “conspire” against any country, and is keen to full protect its national security.
“I say again, any camps being currently used to train terrorists, Egypt will strike. This message is clear, he stressed.
Sisi also urged U.S. President Donald Trump to “prioritize” the fight against terrorism.
"You have said that your priority is to confront terrorism, and I trust you are capable of doing that,” he said, adding, “If Egypt fall so will the rest of the world.”
The bus attacked on Friday was travelling to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, located 135 km (85 miles) south of Cairo when it came under fire.
No group immediately said it was behind the attack, but the Islamic State (ISIS) has targeted Copts several times in recent months, and vowed to do so again. READ MORE
