News sources recently announced that Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM), Egypt’s most active and seemingly best organized terrorist organization that has conducted several successful attacks on state security assets, had formally pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). As the story spread like wildfire over social media outlets, ABM’s official Twitter account denied any such pledge. The incident sparks questions surrounding the false claim, connections between international jihadi terrorism and Sinai, and the reasons why a local group may or may not join an international “Caliphate.”
