Militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (ABM) claimed responsibility for the deadly truck bomb attack on Egypt's armed forces on 24 October, which killed at least 27 soldiers. The group made the claim in a video posted online late on Friday. The 30-minute video shows a man, with his face hidden by video editing, said to be ‘Abu Hamza Al-Ansari'. The group alleges he carried out the attack in Karam Al-Qawadees in a caption shown below. The group then shows a red truck driving into a military checkpoint followed by a large explosion. This moment is shown from two different angles several times. In the aftermath of the explosion, groups of masked men sweep the area firing at injured soldiers. The group also stated they "pursued the fleeing soldiers and eliminated them", showing images of dead servicemen in the desert. ABM said they carried out the attack as there is "no way Jerusalem will be free without the cleansing of Egypt from the agents of the Jews". The video, entitled ‘Onslaught of Ansar', also shows various attacks on security forces and the explosion of a gas pipeline. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that "foreign elements" had supported the attack on 24 October in its immediate aftermath. A separate incident occurred around the same time at an Al-Arish checkpoint where a shootout resulted in the deaths of at least three other soldiers. No mention of this incident was made in Friday's video. Security in North Sinai has been increased since the 24 October attack, including the enforcement of a state of emergency and curfew in areas of North Sinai. There has also been the relocation of residents within 500 metres of Egypt's border with Gaza, with the stated aim of establishing a ‘secure zone'. The armed forces stated that the creation of the zone is aimed at eliminating the use of smuggling tunnels that cross the border. The Sinai-based militant group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against security personnel and infrastructure over the past two years. The group's activities intensified following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, accusing Egypt's security forces of "slaughtering Muslims". They attribute blame for this to President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, whom the group attempted to assassinate in September 2013. In Friday's video, ABM refers to itself as ‘State of Sinai' in response to a call made by Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in an audio recording released Thursday. ABM pledged allegiance to Al-Baghdadi as the self-proclaimed Caliph of the ‘Islamic State' in an audio recording released last Monday. Additional reporting by Menna Zaki
