Egypt security uncovers militant group’s ‘caliphate’ plan to conquer state

Egyptian security has recently uncovered a document circulated among armed groups and which details a plan to “conquer” Egypt and restore the Islamic caliphate.

The document, entitled the “Conquest of Egypt,” was handwritten by a militant called Karim Ahmed Bedeiwi, who was killed in a recent police raid on a flat in the district of Nasr City in eastern Cairo.

The flat was reportedly was used as a weapons warehouse and the headquarters of a terrorist cell, security sources were quoted as saying by the online version of the Egyptian newspaper al-Wafd. 

This document, the sources added, was distributed among 22 jihadist cells that operate under an umbrella group, which later came to be known as the Nasr City cell, and together form an intricate terrorist network that connects Cairo to other Egyptian governorates.

The “Conquest of Egypt” offers a detailed account of a plan by militant Islamists to seize power in Egypt and establish an Islamic caliphate.

The document mentions a series of steps that need to be taken to achieve their goal to “conquer,” they include assassinating the president, the Coptic pope, and several political and security figures. 

This plan would coincide with a series of simultaneous bombings in several vital establishments as well as the Suez Canal, while main roads between Cairo and other Egyptian governorates and communication networks are to be taken over by the militants.

The plan also revealed that in addition to the Pope, the militants were going to target the Coptic community in general whether by assassinating and abducting prominent Coptic figures or carrying out terrorist operations in areas densely populated by Copts or known as their favorite gathering places. 

The purpose, the document said, was to ignite a sectarian strife that not only rids the country of its Christian minority, but one that also undermines the structure of the Egyptian society. 

According to security sources, the main purpose of the bombings is terrorizing the people so that they would not take to the streets in protest.

Certain strategic cities like Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, and Ismailia, according to the document, were to be turned into military barracks. 

The 22 cells, sources explained, possessed large numbers of advanced weapons and bombs that were brought from the Sinai Peninsula and Libya.