Four Terrorists Executed in Egypt

Members of the Egyptian police special forces stand guard on Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square. AFP file photo
Members of the Egyptian police special forces stand guard on Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square. AFP file photo
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Four Terrorists Executed in Egypt

Members of the Egyptian police special forces stand guard on Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square. AFP file photo
Members of the Egyptian police special forces stand guard on Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square. AFP file photo

Four extremists convicted of killing three military-academy students in a bomb attack almost three years ago were executed in Egypt.

The four men were executed at the Borg Al-Arab prison in Alexandria early on Tuesday, the majority-government-owned Al-Ahram Newspaper reported.

On December 26, authorities executed 15 militants who had been sentenced to death by a military court after their convictions over a 2013 attack on a military checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula.

Sinai is the epicenter of a militancy that has spiked over the past four years.

As for the four put to death on Tuesday, they were convicted of committing the terror bombing which took place in April 2015 outside a stadium in the Nile Delta city of Kafr El-Sheikh as the students were waiting for a bus to take them to the academy. Six people were also wounded in the attack.

In June, a military court in Alexandria upheld death sentences against seven defendants convicted of the killings. Three were sentenced in absentia and are still being sought by police.

Tuesday's executions bring the number of extremists executed over the past week to 19.



Kurdish PKK Militants to Hand over First Weapons in Ceremony in Iraq

PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
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Kurdish PKK Militants to Hand over First Weapons in Ceremony in Iraq

PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)

Dozens of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants will hand over their weapons in a ceremony in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant first step toward ending a decades-long insurgency with Türkiye.

The PKK, locked in conflict with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm and end its armed struggle after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, Reuters said.

After a series of failed peace efforts, the new initiative could pave the way for Ankara to end an insurgency that has killed over 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Türkiye and the wider region.

Around 40 PKK militants and one commander were expected to hand over their weapons at the ceremony in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, people familiar with the plan said. The PKK is based in northern Iraq after being pushed well beyond Türkiye’s frontier in recent years.

The arms are to be destroyed later in another ceremony attended by Turkish and Iraqi intelligence figures, officials of Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, and senior members of Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM party - which also played a key role in facilitating the PKK's disarmament decision.

The PKK, DEM and Ocalan have all called on Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's government to address Kurdish political demands. In a rare online video published on Wednesday, Ocalan also urged Türkiye's parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage the broader peace process.

Ankara has taken steps toward forming the commission, while the DEM and Ocalan have said that legal assurances and certain mechanisms were needed to smooth the PKK's transition into democratic politics.

Erdogan has said his government would not allow any attempts to sabotage the disarmament process, adding he would give people "historic good news".

Omer Celik, a spokesman for Erdogan's AK Party, said the disarmament process should not be allowed to drag on longer than a few months to avoid it becoming subject to provocations.