Conflicting reports on Ansar Beit al-Maqdes’ allegiance to Islamic State

Reuters reported on Monday evening that they received a statement from the North Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdes wherein the group pledged its support for the infamous Islamic State.

However, the allegedly official Twitter account for the group denied any association with the Islamic State and said the media reports were false.

The group tweeted that “the statement attributed to us about our declaration of allegiance to the Islamic State that is circulating in the media has no relation to us.” They also advised the media to be more careful in its fact-checking and only report on official statements from Ansar Beit al-Maqdes.

According to Reuters, Ansar Beit al-Maqdes released a statement saying, “After entrusting God we decided to swear allegiance to the emir of the faithful, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, caliph of the Muslims in Syria and Iraq and other countries.”

The Reuters report did not provide a link for this statement, but what appeared to be an official statement from Ansar Beit al-Maqdes began circulating on Twitter. However, there were no official sources for this statement.

The news that Ansar Beit al-Maqdes had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State quickly spread in both Egyptian and international media. The story was picked up by state-owned Al-Ahram, privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm and the international website Al-Arabiya. However, Al-Masry Al-Youm later reported that Ansar Beit al-Maqdes denied that they had declared their allegiance to the Islamic State.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdes has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in Sinai on police and military personnel. The group also claimed responsibility for a number of high-profile attacks on public figures and offices, including an assassination attempt on the interior minister in September 2013 and an attack on the Cairo Security Directorate in January 2014.

The Egyptian government has been cracking down on North Sinai in recent weeks, after 33 soldiers were killed in an attack on the Karm al-Qawadees checkpoint near Rafah on October 24.

Following this incident, President Abdeh Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency in parts of North Sinai. He then authorized the demolition of over 800 properties and the forced evacuation of 1,156 families from the border of Egypt and the Gaza strip in order to create a buffer zone on the Gaza border.

The military is seeking to create this buffer zone in this area in order to combat smuggling through tunnels in the Gaza strip. The buffer zone will be 14 km long and 500 meters wide with a 30-meter wide trench in the middle to prevent tunnels from the Gaza strip.