A new terror group with alleged ties to Al Qaeda known as Ansar al Islam has claimed responsibility for last month’s deadly Wahat attack, which killed at least 16 policemen, Reuters reported on Friday. While they provided no evidence for their involvement, the group issued a statement declaring the incident as “the start of a holy war against the Egyptian state.” The AP also has the story. This came as another attack on security personnel in North Sinai injured one policeman this weekend. Military forces in the Sinai were also able to foil an attempted attack on a checkpoint on Thursday, according to Xinhua.

Egyptian authorities continue to fall into their predecessors’ pitfalls, attempting “to address the symptoms of terrorism rather than its causes,” Nancy Okail and Amr Kotb write for The Washington Post. States can also use “official Islam” to counter radical thought, another piece in The Washington Post suggests, citing Egypt, where President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has called for changing the religious rhetoric, appearing alongside Al Azhar’s Grand Imam in an attempt to “nationalize religion and personalize official Islam.”