In less than a fortnight, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) has grabbed credit for several high-profile attacks.
These include a boom-mobileing at police headquarters in Cairo, shooting down a military helicopter with a missile and assassinating a police general in broad daylight in the capital.
"Vengeance is coming," the Sinai-based group warned army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is expected to stand for the presidency after he ousted Mohammed Morsi
...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the
One Man, One Vote, One Timeprinciple, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator...
, Egypt's first democratically elected president.
The group's attacks have "made Egyptian authorities look like they were chasing ghosts", said David Barnett, research associate at US-based think tank the Foundation for Defence of Democracies.
"It is the main bad boy group that has the potential to escalate the destabilisation in the country."
Analysts say Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is inspired by Al-Qaeda.
But Egyptian security officials claim the "terrorist group is derived" from Morsi's Islamist Moslem Brüderbund which won all elections after the 2011 ouster of Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is thought to have been founded primarily by Egyptians in 2011 after the anti-Mubarak revolt, with most of its fighters drawn from Sinai tribes.
In recent months the group has also seen support coming from the Nile Delta and some areas of Cairo, experts say.
Although its overall command structure and source of funding are major unknowns, two of its known leaders are Shadi el-Menei, who has eluded arrest so far and is from Sinai's Sawarka tribe, and Abu Osama el-Masry, of whom little is known.
The group is also believed to be led or backed by Death Eaters who broke out of prison in 2011 during the anti-Mubarak revolt.
"Its links with Al-Qaeda are tenuous at best," said Barnett. The group's videos often feature clips of Al-Qaeda's Egypt-born leader Ayman al-
Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
.
The group's "early goal was to attack Israel and prevent co-operation between Egypt and Israel by sabotaging gas pipelines", said La Belle France-based Matthieu Guidere, an expert on Islamist bad boys.
On Friday its fighters fired a rocket at Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat, the group said in a statement. "On July 3 (the day Morsi was removed) the group issued a fatwa declaring the Egyptian army as infidels. From there, it turned from an anti-Israeli jihadist group to one focusing against the Egyptian security forces," Guidere said.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis also claimed a September 5 car kaboom in Cairo targeting interior minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who escaped unhurt.
Its deadliest assault was a December 24 suicide boom-mobile that destroyed a police building north of Cairo, killing 15 people.
On January 25, as Egyptians marked the third anniversary of the start of the anti-Mubarak revolt, the group claimed it downed a military helicopter in Sinai with a missile, killing five soldiers. "The level of sophistication is beyond what observers thought they were capable of," Barnett said of the group's ability to stage assaults outside the Sinai.