Egypt welcomed on Monday the announcement that the leader of the Islamic State terrorist group Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was killed in a US military operation, saying that this "represents an important step in the quest to eradicate terrorism."
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced that Al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid by US Special Forces in northwest Syria, in a major blow to the jihadist group.
Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said in an official statement that "this development should be followed up with continued concerted international efforts and unified action to counter terrorism in all its forms and manifestations with no discrimination, since all takfiri terrorist organisations like the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood emanate from the same extremist ideological source.”
Hafez also stressed that the world needs to tackle terrorism “from a comprehensive perspective that takes into account the security and development facets, as well as ideological confrontation in order to refute the misinterpretations of religious texts promoted by terrorist groups.”
The spokesman also stressed that Egypt continues to urge the international community to hold accountable the countries that play a negative role in inciting and supporting terrorism through financing, providing safe havens, and facilitating the mobility of terrorist elements, and which provide various platforms for spreading terrorist and extremist ideologies, which leads to destabilising the region and the world.
Baghdadi had been a target of US and regional security forces since he declared the formation of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in July 2014.
