Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on Egyptian people to topple the government a few weeks ahead of Egypt’s presidential elections that are scheduled to be held late March, according to Reuters. The message of al-Zawahiri came a few days following a video of the Islamic State, an enemy of Al Qaeda, warning Egyptians of taking part in the elections, further urging Islamists to attack security forces. Egypt’s police and military forces have been holding massive security operations against militants in North Sinai for a week, which led to the killing some 53 militants, according to a statement by the military. North Sinai has been caught in a crossfire between Egypt’s security forces and militants since 2014, which led to hundreds of killings from both sides. In the audio recording published on Telegram, al-Zawahiri urged everyone to topple the “apostate, criminal, and corrupt” regime. Additionally, he called on everyone to jihad using weapons, money, and ambushes. Security expert Khaled Okasha told the privately-owned al-Youm al-Sabee that al-Zawahiri’s statement is futile, given that he doesn’t have an influence on the extremist Islamic movements. Okasha further went on to say that al-Zawahiri is…
