Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II attempted on Monday to reassure Egyptians after the recent attacks on Copts in North Sinai, stressing that the Coptic families that have fled the governorate out of fear of terrorist violence will return to the city "when the time is right." At the start of this month, the Coptic Orthodox Church announced that 143 Christian families had fled North Sinai to Ismailiya after a spate of killings of Christians by Islamist militants in the governorate.

Islamic State's branch in the Sinai Peninsula posted a video on Tuesday depicting the beheading of two men the militant Islamist group said it had found guilty of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. The video, posted on a Telegram channel often used by IS, showed the group forming a religious police unit known as the Hasbah in northern Sinai, where it has waged an insurgency for years. The rugged, thinly populated peninsula borders Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal.

Islamic State-affiliate Province of Sinai released a promotional video on Tuesday showing members of the organization carrying out what it alleges to be Hisba, or religious policing. The group claimed the footage is from locations in North Sinai, which it did not identify. Hisba is defined by religious scholars as the practice of commanding virtue and forbidding vice, professor of Islamic law professor at Al-Azhar University Ahmed Kareema told the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. He added that Hisba should be conducted by a select few who must be efficient, fair, knowledgeable and capable, describing it as a type of guardianship falling to those who have been entrusted with religious matters.

Egyptian army spokesman Tamer El-Refa i on Sunday dismissed a New York Times report alleging Egyptian approval of Israeli airstrikes against terrorist targets in North Sinai over the past two years. "The Egyptian Army and police are fighting terrorism in North Sinai on their own and without anybody s help," the spokesman said in the statement.

The Second Field Army’s law enforcement forces in North Sinai, in cooperation with the Air Force, killed a high-ranking militant and arrested six suspected terrorists Armed Forces’ spokesperson Tamer al-Refaei said on Monday. Authorities discovered and destroyed two four-wheeled vehicles, six motorbikes as well as a storehouse containing motorbike spare parts and 51 explosive devices, he said in a statement.

Egypt s armed forces thwarted over the past week 20 different attempts to smuggle goods and drugs, as well as irregular migration attempts, across Egyptian borders, the army spokesman said in a statement on Saturday. The Armed Forces have apprehended 20 suspects in several cases as well as 226 persons who attempted to migrate irregularly.

Syrian militants of Hay at Tahrir al-Sham shot down a Russian fighter jet in Idlib city in northwestern Syria on Saturday, according to the Russian Defence Ministry. The pilot of the aircraft, a Sukhoi Su-25, was killed when the militants tried to capture him. According to the statement by the Russian Ministry of Defence, “the pilot managed to report the ejection in the area controlled by the militants of Jabhat al-Nusra, but later he died fighting the terrorists.”

The Syrian government described on Thursday a Turkish offensive in Syria s Afrin region as an illegal "aggression" and said it would deal with it accordingly. "The Turkish military operation in northern Syria is a blatant aggression," said a foreign ministry statement circulated on state media. The unauthorised presence of foreign forces represents "occupation and will be dealt with on this basis", it said.

The US State Department designated two Egypt-based militant groups ‘Hasm’ and ‘Lewaa al-Thawra’ as terrorist groups, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement on Wednesday, citing their links to the Muslim Brotherhood. “Some of the leaders of the violent splinter groups, Lewaa al-Thawra and Hasm, were previously associated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,” the State Department noted in a statement, adding that subsequently, the assets of Hasm and Lewaa al-Thawra will be blocked, and US nationals will be prohibited from dealing with them.

Clashes raged between Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish militia in Syria s Afrin region on Wednesday, as wounded civilians fled intense Turkish air strikes. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have pressed on with Operation Olive Branch in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave despite mounting international concern and reports of rising civilian casualties. An AFP correspondent in Afrin heard warplanes flying overhead, and Kurdish officials said rocket fire on the town wounded 12 civilians.

Rockets fired from northern Syria into a Turkish border town killed a teenage girl and wounded another person on Wednesday, Turkey s state-run news agency reported amid Ankara s intensifying offensive on a Syrian Kurdish-controlled enclave. It was the latest in a string of rocket attacks on the border towns of Reyhanli and Kilis since Jan. 20, when Turkey s military launched a cross-border operation to drive out the Syrian Kurdish militia from the northern enclave of Afrin. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish People s Protection Units, or YPG, an extension of the outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting an insurgency inside Turkey.

A Cairo criminal court sentenced on Tuesday six people to life in prison – 25 years – for joining an illegal organisation, the attempted murder of security personnel and establishing a terrorist cell in the case known in the media as the "second Nasr City terrorist cell."

The highly-ranking Egyptian Muslim institution Dar al-Ifta Al-Misriyyah issued a Fatwa [ruling on an Islamic law] on Monday that any citizen who refrains from voting during any election is considered a “sinner” who is acting “dishonestly.” Dar al-Ifta is assigned to draw upon the Quranic scripture and prophets’ teachings, and has consulted jurists throughout history to help Muslims live their lives according to the principles of Islam.

Gunmen attacked an army outpost near one of Afghanistan s main military academies on Monday and five soldiers were killed and 10 wounded before the attackers were subdued, the defence ministry said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack near the Marshal Fahim military academy in the western outskirts of the capital, Kabul, according to the militant group s Amaq news agency.

Yemen s state-run news agency says 12 people have been killed and over 130 wounded in clashes between separatists and pro-government forces in the southern port city of Aden, where the government is based. The clashes in Aden erupted on Sunday, after a deadline issued by the separatists for the government to resign expired.

Egypt’s Al-Nour Party, the country’s largest Salafi party, declared on Sunday that they are officially supporting President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi’s second presidential bid and that its members will vote for the incumbent in the upcoming polls. During a press conference held at the party’s main headquarters in Cairo, the head of Al-Nour Younis Makhyoun said that after consultations with the heads of the party’s different branches around Egypt, they decided to support Sisi in the upcoming presidential elections.

France would intervene if a French jihadist were condemned to death in Iraq or Syria, the country s justice minister Nicole Belloubet said on Sunday. The possibility of such an event has arisen after an Iraqi court this month sentenced to death a German woman of Moroccan origin for membership of Islamic State.

The Egyptian cabinet has ratified a law establishing the Supreme Council for Combating Terrorism and Extremism (SCCTE), modifying Presidential Decree 355/2017 which created the National Council for Combating Terrorism and Extremism. The cabinet said the SCCTE will act to motivate state institutions and society to eradicate terrorism and trace its funding.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Wednesday that U.S. troops should withdraw from northern Syria s Manbij region, Turkey s foreign minister said on Thursday. On Wednesday, prior to his phone call with Trump, Erdogan said Turkey would extend its military operation in Syria to the town of Manbij, a move that could potentially bring Turkish forces into confrontation with those of their NATO ally the United States.

Pope Tawadros II, the head of Egypt s Coptic Orthodox Church, met with senior writers and journalists at Al-Ahram headquarters in downtown Cairo on Tuesday to inaugurate an exhibition displaying some of the paper s oldest editions and historic belongings. During the visit, the pope met with Al-Ahram Chairman Abdel-Mohsen Salama, Editor-in-Chief Alaa Thabet as well as a number of the organization s senior writers and officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concerns to Turkey s Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call on Tuesday following the Turkish military intervention in the Syrian enclave of Afrin. "Taking into account Turkey s security imperatives, the president expressed to his Turkish counterpart his concerns following the military intervention launched on Saturday in Afrin," Macron s office said in a statement.