Images have emerged of Islamic State militants manning checkpoints and performing security inspections in the city of Al-Arish, located in the northern Sinai Peninsula. The Islamic State published pictures of its fighters armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, moving through traffic and inspecting the IDs of Egyptian drivers.
Al-Arish is the capital of the North of Sinai and the largest city on the entire peninsula. The city also lies at the heart of friction between Egyptian security forces and the extreme Muslim group. In recent months the Islamic State in the lawless Sinai Peninsula has declared its priorities, the first of which was to target Christians living on territory they control, secondly target the Egyptian military and security forces loyal to President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, and thirdly, to annihilate the Jewish state.