Wilayat Sinai (States of Sinai) militant group released a new video via social media websites late Monday, renewing its allegiance to the Islamic State's leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi. The nine-minute video titled "Allegiance of the proud from the communing land," produced by the group's media organization, features footage of Abu Osama El Masry, major cleric of Wilayat Sinai, delivering a speech among a number of the group's militants. In the video, El Masry briefed the group's radical thoughts derived from Sheikh Mohamed bin Abd Al Wahhab, founder of the Islamic movement, Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. He then vowed to IS and its leader, Al Baghdadi, to continue their terror campaign targeting Egyptian security and military personnel. The video concluded with an old audio message from Al Baghdadi saying "I hail the Islamic state's proud fighters in Sinai who refused peace opposition and adopted the way of integrity and pride." It also provided footage for several vehicles of Wilayat Sinai making a long parade in the middle of Sinai desert, and flashing the famous black flag of IS militant group. The Sinai-based Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis (ABM) militant group has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks targeting army and police personnel in the peninsula, before it re-branded itself in 2014 as Wilayat Sinai after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group through a written statement released on the group's Twitter account. The announcement by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last year on the establishment of the Islamic State and his appointment as caliph prompted a number of Salafi jihad organizations across the world to declare their support for the organization. These factions included Majlis Shura Al Mujahidin (in Gaza), Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis (in Egypt), and Boko Haram (in Nigeria).
