Egypt launches strikes on ISIS targets in Libya

(Al Arabiya News)- Egypt's military said it bombed ISIS targets in Libya at dawn on Monday, following the execution of a group of Egyptian Copts by the militant group.

On Sunday, ISIS released a video purportedly showing the beheading of 21 Egyptians captured in Libya. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called an urgent meeting of Egypt’s top national security body after the video was released.

Sisi also gave a televised address, saying that Egypt and the world are facing “ferocious threats” hailing from radical militants, who are “devoid of any humane sense.”

He said his country reserved the right to “punish these murderers” as he called a meeting of security chiefs and declared seven days of mourning after the video was distributed by militants on social media.

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox church said it was “confident” that those who purportedly beheaded a group of Egyptian Copts in Libya will be punished.

“The Orthodox church ... is confident its homeland would not rest until the evil perpetrators get their fair retribution for their wicked crime,” the Coptic church said in a statement on its Facebook page.

On Sunday, militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

The footage shows 21 handcuffed hostages wearing orange jumpsuits being beheaded by their black-suited captors on a beach the group said was in the Libyan province of Tripoli.

In a separate development, the United States condemned as “despicable” the beheading of the 21 men.

“The United States condemns the despicable and cowardly murder of twenty-one Egyptian citizens in Libya by ISIS-affiliated terrorists,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

“ISIS’s barbarity knows no bounds. It is unconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity,” Earnest added, saying the latest bloodshed “only further galvanizes the international community to unite against ISIS”.

“This heinous act once again underscores the urgent need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya,” Earnest said.