What’s next for Egypt’s IS affiliate after killing of leader?
After the Egyptian military announced Aug. 4 that the head of the Sinai branch of the Islamic State was killed in a series of airstrikes, observers are split over what comes next for the group.
![EGYPT-MILITANTS/ Smoke rises after a house was blown up during a military operation by Egyptian security forces in the Egyptian city of Rafah, near the border with southern Gaza Strip October 29, 2014. At least 33 Egyptian security personnel were killed on Friday in the Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel and Gaza, in an attack on a checkpoint that bore the marks of assaults claimed by Egypt's most active militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Saturday the military would respond wit](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2016/08/RTR4C0P6.jpg/RTR4C0P6.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=0DEmg70k)
Abu Du’a al-Ansari — the reported head of the Islamic State’s (IS) affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula — has been killed in an airstrike, an Egypt official said. Brig. Gen. Muhammad Samir, the official spokesman of Egypt's armed forces, described Ansari on Aug. 4 as “the leader of the [Ansar] Bayt al-Maqdis organization.”
A number of his deputies were also killed in the strike, Samir said. The Egyptian army stressed that numerous scenarios were being contemplated concerning the future of the organization, also known as Wilayat Sinai, in the wake of its leader’s killing and amid speculation as to who might replace him as the group’s next head.