BREAKING NEWS

Family of Egyptian militant Ashmawy not notified about his reported execution

The family of the convicted top Egyptian militant Hisham al-Ashmawy has not been formally notified about his reported execution on Monday, his lawyer Khaled El-Masry told Reuters.

Earlier several local media and three security sources said that authorities executed Ashmawy, described as the country's most dangerous Islamist militant, after he was convicted by a military court of orchestrating several attacks.

Ashmawy, a former Egyptian special forces officer, was transferred to Egypt from eastern Libya last year and has been long sought by Cairo on charges of being behind the high-profile attacks on security forces.