Egypt Executes Prominent Islamist Militant Habara

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt executed prominent Islamist fighter Adel Habara on Thursday, state media said, days after a top court rejected his final appeal and in defiance of militant threats to ignite “a volcano of jihad” across the country.

Habara, 40, was sentenced to death in 2014 for killing 25 army conscripts in Northern Sinai in August 2013. He was hanged early on Thursday after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi signed off on the death sentence, state news agency MENA said.

Sisi has launched a fierce crackdown on Islamists since as Egypt’s then-military chief he overthrew the country’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, in July 2013.