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Egypt said Monday it has launched airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Libya after the extremist group released a grisly video showing the beheading of several Egyptian Coptic Christians it had held hostage for weeks.

A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio Monday, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.

The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers."

"Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them," it said.

Libya's air force meanwhile announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an Islamic State affiliate last year. The announcement, on the Facebook page of the Air Force Chief of Staff, did not provide further details.

The video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages was released late Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group.

The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group - which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate - has established a direct affiliate less than 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to "conquer Rome."

The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.

It was one of the first such beheading videos from an Islamic State group affiliate to come from outside the group's core territory in Syria and Iraq.

Libya in recent months has seen the worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country's many Islamic extremist groups.

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Egypt Strikes ISIS Targets In Libya After Grisly Video Is Released

Story highlights Jets target ISIS camps, training areas and weapons depots, Egypt's military says "Avenging Egyptian blood ... is our right and duty," it says in a statement The killings of the Egyptian Christians in Libya has deepened concerns about ISIS' reach

Egyptian F-16 jets took off in the early hours of Monday to bomb ISIS camps, training areas and weapons depots in Libya, the Egyptian military said.

"Avenging Egyptian blood and punishing criminals and murderers is our right and duty," it said in a statement broadcast on state television.

It wasn't immediately clear where in Libya the airstrikes hit or how much damage and casualties they might have caused.

The bombing raids came after ISIS released a gruesome video Sunday that appeared to show the beheadings of the Egyptian Christians on a beach.

The footage, bearing many of the hallmarks of previous ISIS hostage execution videos, has intensified international concerns about ISIS' deepening reach into countries far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

The slickly produced video shows the apparent mass execution with jihadists in black standing behind each of the victims, who are all dressed in orange jumpsuits with their hands cuffed behind them.

Some of the hostages cry out "Oh God" and "Oh Jesus" as they are pushed to their knees.

The five-minute video, released by ISIS' propaganda wing al-Hayat Media, includes a masked English-speaking jihadi who says, "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with your blood."

The video threatens Egypt, which shares a long border with Libya, and also Europe, whose shores lie across the Mediterranean Sea.

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Egypt bombs ISIS targets in Libya after killings

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