Photos Show Former Hamas Members Who Were Killed Fighting for Islamic State

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AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty

TEL AVIV — The Islamic State has released photos over the Telegram chat application of jihadists who took part in an attack against Egyptian army headquarters, where the terrorist organization says the military operations are run against Wilyat Sinai, the Egyptian branch of IS.

The photos show four organization members labeled in a caption as “kamikazes” who carried out “an extensive attack against the 101 Brigade at El Arish.”

Wilyat Sinai also said in the release that dozens of Egyptian soldiers were killed and wounded in the attack and that the four armed men in the photos detonated their suicide vests after running out of ammunition.

Two of the suicide attackers were said to have been Egyptians and the other two Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

According to Abu Baker al-Maqdesi, a senior jihadist in Gaza, the two Palestinians used to be members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ so-called military wing. Al-Maqdesi identified them as Abdelrahman Banat, from the neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan in the north of Gaza City and Tareq al-Sheiq, from Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The two defected from the ranks of Hamas one year ago and joined IS in Sinai, he said.

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