Sinai militants execute four accused informants

Anthony Weiss

(JTA) — A violent Egyptian Islamist group released a video of four Egyptians accused of being  informants for Israeli intelligence being executed, three via beheading.

The Sinai-based terrorist group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, posted a video on YouTube of the executions, Reuters reported. Ansar, which has carried on a violent military campaign in the Sinai against the Egyptian army, reportedly accused Egypt of collaborating with Israel and vowed to hunt down and kill informants who provide intelligence to the army, promising to continue to “harvest the spies of the Jews.”

In the video, three men reportedly confess to being informants and are then decapitated by masked men, who then place the severed heads upon the corpses’ backs. A fourth man likewise confesses and is then riddled with bullets.

The video is reminiscent of recent gruesome beheading videos issued by the militant group Islamic State, which has operated in Iraq and Syria. Reuters had previously reported that the Islamic State has been advising Ansar via the internet.