Senior extremist leaders have been killed in fighting in the eastern city of Derna, according to e-accounts affiliated with extremist groups and local activists WHO confirmed this information on Sunday.
Among those killed was Omar Rifai Juma'a Sorour, aka Abu Abdullah, a prominent leader of what was known as the Shura Council of Mujahedeen in Derna (SCMD) and its legal judge.
Accounts on social media circulated pictures of the house where Sorour, also wanted in Egypt, was staying. Military sources said that "the army was trying to arrest him alive."
Al-Qaeda affiliated accounts on social media have announced the death of three of the organization's leaders after the Egyptian fundamentalist residing in London, Hani Sibai, confirmed the death of Omar Sorour, his wife and five children, Abu Omar Abdul Salam al-Awami and Sheikh Abizaid.
Sorour belongs to a radical family. His father, Rifai, was a leader of the Jihad organization and died in Cairo in 2012. While his brother Yahya and his sister's husband are still being held.
According to information provided by the Sibai, Sorour, who graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, spent eight years in detention in Egypt before his release after the 2011 revolution. He served as a "legal judge" after his arrival in Derna.
Operation Chamber of Omar al-Mukhtar sent huge military reinforcements along the coast of the Derna "to purge it of the remaining terrorist elements," pro-army news agency stated.
The military information division published photographs of the corpses of a number of gunmen, who were said to have been killed in fighting against the army, and video footage of residents of the West Shiha while they were welcoming troops in their area.
The army forces headed to the eastern Shiha area on Sunday after it managed to extend its full control over West Shiha following "fierce battles against terrorist groups."
