Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Egypt's army clashed with jihadists in Sinai Friday, leaving two children dead, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi flew home to deal with a wave of militant attacks that killed at least 30 people.
      
The top brass vowed to hunt down those behind the violence.
      

Militants fired a barrage of rockets and set off a car bomb Jan. 29 killing at least 26 people, mostly soldiers, in Egypt's North Sinai province, where security forces are battling a raging Islamist insurgency.
      
The deadly assaults were swiftly claimed by the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group that has captured chunks of territory in Syria and Iraq.

The sons of deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak were released from prison on Jan. 26, prison officials said, a day after the violent anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled the autocrat.
   
An Egyptian court last week ordered the release of Alaa and Gamal Mubarak pending their retrial in a corruption case.
   

At least 17 people were killed on Jan. 25 in Egypt's bloodiest protests since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected president, as security forces fired at protesters marking the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
   

Two protesters were killed in Egypt and a bomb wounded two policemen on Jan. 25, the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, security sources said.
   
The anniversary is a test of whether Islamists and liberal activists facing one of Egypt's toughest security crackdowns have the resolve to challenge the U.S.-backed government once again.

An "Islamist" protester was killed in clashes with police in Egypt's second city Alexandria on Jan. 25, officials said, as the country marked the fraught anniversary of its 2011 popular uprising.
      
Police officials said the protester shot at police during an Islamist demonstration. Police returned fire and killed him, they said.

Turkey and Egypt should come together and discuss ways to find a mutual understanding on their different points of view, the Turkish prime minister has said, describing the importance of the Arab country as "the backbone of the Middle East."

Turkey's foreign minister was in Doha on Jan. 20 to hold talks with Qatari leaders and put on a united front in the wake of the recent Qatari-Egyptian thaw, which seemed to mark a shift in the long-running foreign policy alignment of both countries.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi acknowledged Tuesday that police committed rights abuses after the overthrow of his Islamist predecessor, but said they were expected given the "exceptional" security threats faced by Egypt.
      

Canadian foreign minister John Baird said he had a "fruitful" meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Thursday to seek the release of a Canadian journalist imprisoned with two Al-Jazeera colleagues.
      
But Baird played down expectations that his visit could see Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy freed imminently after more than a year in jail.