Egypt’s interior ministry says it has killed the leader of the Isis-affiliated Sinai Province, formerly known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, in Cairo on 9 November.

Ashraf Gharabli was killed in a shoot-out in Cairo after security forces tried to arrest him, said the statement from Egyptian officials.

Gharabli led several attacks, including the kidnapping and killing of a Croatian citizen in August, it said.

Ansar Bait al-Maqdis has been active in the Sinai peninsula since 2011 and changed its name to Sinai Province after it pledged its allegiance to the so called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) in 2014.

Since 2014 the group has carried out a number of attacks on security forces in Sinai and in July this year one of the groups largest attacks led to the Egyptian army declaring a state of war and deploying fighter jets on the peninsula.

Sinai Province claimed responsibility for the Metrojet flight that crashed in Egypt on 31 October, which killed 224 passengers on board.

Although the Egyptian government has not yet confirmed that the cause of the crash was a bomb on board the flight to St. Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt is expected to continue military operations in Sinai, where the group operates.