Expelled Egyptian army officer-turned-terrorist Hesham Ashmwai was arrested on Monday 8 October at dawn in Libya as part of a wide-scale military operation conducted by the Libyan Armed Forces. According to a press statement released by Libyan Army, Ashmwai, the leader of the ‘Islamic State’ (IS) branch in Derna, Libya , was under arrest after the Libyan Armed Forces launched a military operation to capture him. Ashmwai is a former fired officer at the Egyptian Armed Forces where he served as a Sa’aka officer is considered as the elite forces inside Egypt’s army. He decided to join the militant group of Al-Qaeda after the 2011 revolution. Ashmawi is also known as Abu Omar al-Muhajir. He received advanced training during his military service with Egypt’s army on special operation tasks in the United States ‘main training institutes. In 2014 , Ashmawi became a leading figure of the IS branch in Egypt , the ‘Sinai Province’ group which was known as ‘Ansar Byat El-Maqdus’ group at that time. He supervised most important militants attacks conducted by the group against the army and police forces based in Sinai and Al-Farafra oasis. He was…
