Egypt's fightback against ISIS begins: Top operative with group accused of downing Russian jet is shot dead... as Putin crony accuses the U.S. of complicity in bombing
A top Islamic State operative of the group suspected of bombing the Russian jet over Egypt has been killed by police in Cairo.
Egypt's interior ministry said Ashraf Ali Ali Hassanein al-Gharabli was shot dead in an exchange of fire after police tried to arrest him.
Hassanein was one of the most sought after militants in the country and had featured in a wanted notice by police in January 2014, months into a militant insurgency centred in the Sinai Peninsula.
He was implicated in a string of attacks including the bombing of the Italian consulate in Cairo last July and the murders of a Croat and an American.
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Egyptian special forces patrol the streets of Cairo. A top ISIS operative with Islamic State-affiliated group Sinai Province has been killed by police in the capital as Egypt launches a fresh crackdown on the group
A police official said he had been the right-hand man of Hisham al-Eshmawi, a feared former commando who is believed to have spearheaded a string of bombings and assassinations in the capital for the militant Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group, now known as Sinai Province.
In November 2014, the group pledged allegiance to ISIS, prompting Eshmawi to abandon it and leaving Hassanein as one the group's top operatives west of Sinai.
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