On Thursday, May 16, 2013, seven Egyptian soldiers were kidnapped in El Arish in northern Sinai. According to the Egyptian press, the kidnappers belonged to a Salafi jihadist group affiliated with al-Qaeda. Sheikh Muhammad al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian Salafist cleric and the brother of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, announced the kidnappers’ demands for the release of several prisoners who were held as terrorists and tortured at al-Tura prison.
