Man beheaded in Sinai for 'spying for Mossad'
Residents of Egypt's Sinai say radical Islamist militants from ISIS-linked Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis left signed note on beheaded corpse.
Residents in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula said on Wednesday they found a beheaded corpse bearing a note signed by an Islamist militant group linked to the Syria and Iraq-based Islamic State, accusing the victim of being an Israeli spy.
The beheading is the eighth claimed by the group in Sinai in under a month in a surge of brutal killings seemingly inspired by Islamic State, which has been internationally condemned for its atrocities and has been the target of US air strikes.
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Residents from a village south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai told Reuters by phone that the decapitated body bore a note signed by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, saying he was an agent for spy agency Mossad.
"This is the fate of all who prove to be traitors to their homeland," the group said in the note, according to the villagers.
A senior Ansar commander told Reuters last week that Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq, had been advising the Sinai-based group on how to operate more effectively.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, the most powerful and ruthless militant group in Sinai, said last month it had beheaded four Egyptians for providing Israel with intelligence for an airstrike that killed three of its fighters.
The group posted a video on Twitter showing the beheadings which resembled images posted on the Internet by Islamic State.
Islamic State has caused international alarm over its rapid expansion and extremely violence, including the beheadings of two US journalists and the killing and burying alive of hundreds of Iraqis from the Yazidi minority.
Egyptian intelligence officials have said Islamic State is also influencing Egyptian militants based just over the border with Libya.
Last week the group said it executed nine Sinai residents suspected for collaborating with Mossad.
Furthermore, the organization spread a message among the tribes in Sinai in which they threatened to kill others that will cooperate with Israel.
Earlier this month four headless corpses were found in Sinai, security sources said - the first time that any decapitations had been made public in Egypt.
The men had been abducted by gunmen two days earlier while driving in the town of Sheikh Zuwaid, which is just a few kilometers (miles) from the Gaza Strip.
In a video released on Twitter, the group said the four men had been spying for the Mossad.
Armed men in black masks stood over the kneeling captives as one of the militants read out a statement. Minutes later, the four men had their heads cuts off. The filmed killings was reminiscent of images posted on the Internet by Islamic State.
Reuters contributed to this report
