Egyptian and Libyan warplanes carried out airstrikes Monday against the Islamic State group in eastern Libya, the militaries said, in retaliation for militants beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were kidnapped in Libya.
The bombings targeting militant camps and weapons storage cities in the town of Darna came hours after the Islamic State group released a video purporting to show the killings.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi had pledged in a televised speech to respond to the beheadings, calling them an "abhorrent act of terrorism."
The video shows several men in orange jumpsuits being led along a beach, each accompanied by a masked militant. The men are made to kneel and one militant addresses the camera in English before the men are simultaneously beheaded.
The brutal murders were portrayed as retaliation against what a masked fighter described as “the hostile Egyptian church.” Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of the Egyptian population and suffer widespread discrimination and persecution.