In response to the beheading death of nearly two dozen Egyptian Coptic Christians in the Libya by the Libyan affiliate of the Islamic State, Egypt launched airstrikes against Islamic State positions and camps in and around the Libyan city of Derna, near the Egyptian-Libyan border.  The Islamic State Jihadists have controlled Derna, a city of nearly 100,000 people, for the past several months.  This is the first publicly acknowledged Egyptian military action in Libya since the 1977 Egypt-Libya Border War.

Execution of Egyptian Christians in Libya by Islamic State 2015

This could now be considered a second front in Egypt’s ongoing war against the Islamic State. In  November, 2014, the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis Jihadist insurgent group declared their allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as ISIS and ISIL)  and proclaimed themselves as the “Province of Sinai” of the Islamic State Caliphate.

This can also be considered a foreign war, of which Egypt has engaged in nearly a dozen wars against foreign powers or entities since the Second World War in  modern Egyptian military history.

Libya-Egypt Border Map Showing Where Derna Is Located