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Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah al- Sisi urged on Sunday the Arab countries to form a unified military force to fight the growing threat of terrorism in the region.
In a televised speech, Sisi said that challenges in the region are grave, "but we the Arabs can overcome them united."
Sisi stressed that the Egyptian airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Libya last week were only a reaction to the murder of 21 Egyptians by IS militants in the neighboring North African country.
Last Sunday, the IS group published a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians abducted in Libya's central city of Sirte on two separate occasions in December and January, only one week apart.
Hours after the IS announcement of killing the Egyptians, the Egyptian jets hit several IS targets in Libya.
"We hit 13 IS targets in Libya. These targets have been meticulously monitored and observed," Sisi said, noting that the Egyptian army is not an invading one but just defending Egyptian people and their homeland.
"But we might hit targets behind our borders if we need to do so", he added.
IS is a rebel Islamist group that controls territories in Iraq and Syria and operates in parts of Libya and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.
The group is classified as a terror group by Arab States and the West for the human rights violations and war crimes they committed mostly against civilians. Enditem
