Cairo, May 17 (IANS): Egypt on Sunday executed six convicted Islamist militants who were members of the Sinai-based Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group, the state prison department said in statement.
The hanged Islamists were top leaders in Beit al-Maqdis group. The group, which appeared after the ouster of Egypt's former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in June 2013, ran its terrorist operations against the army and police in the restive Sinai.
The group has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in Sinai and other cities in Egypt.
The six executed were convicted of killing army men, torching security premises in the Sinai peninsula, in a case known as "Arab Sharkas", Xinhua news agency reported.
The executions came one day after ousted Islamist president Morsi and top Muslim Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to death over charges of jailbreak and killing policemen in 2011.