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ByHamzaHendawiand Maggie Michael The Associated Press CAIRO Egypt carried out airstrikes against Islamic State group targets in neighboring Libya on Mon- day and began a push for in- ternational military inter- vention in the chaotic North African state after extrem- ists beheaded a group of Egyptian Christians. The airstrikes bring Egypt overtly into Lib- ya's turmoil, showing Cai- ro's alarm over the grow- ing stronghold of radicals on its western border as it also fights a militant insur- gency of Islamic State allies on its eastern flank in the Sinai Peninsula. Libya is where the ex- tremist group has built up its strongest presence out- side Syria and Iraq, and the government of Presi- dent Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is lobbying in Europe and the United States for a co- ordinated international re- sponse similar to the coali- tion air campaign in those countries. "Leaving things in Libya as they are without decisive intervention to suppress these terror groups consti- tutes a clear danger to in- ternational peace and secu- rity," Egypt's Foreign Min- istry said. Egypt launched U.S.- made F-16 fighter jets from bases near its border sev- eral hours apart and struck targets in the eastern Lib- yan city of Darna, accord- ing to Egyptian and Libyan security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not au- thorized to talk the press. Egypt's military an- nounced the first round of strikes on state radio — the first public acknowledge- ment of military action in post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya. The military's state- ment said weapons caches and training camps were destroyed "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek ret- ribution from the killers." "Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield to protect and safe- guard the security of the country and a sword that cuts off terrorism," it said. The strikes came hours after the Islamic State group issued a grisly video of the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians — mainly young men from im- poverished families — who had travelled to Libya for work. They were kidnapped in two groups in Decem- ber and January from the coastal city of Sirte. In the video, the hostages are marched onto what is purported to be a Libyan beach before masked mil- itants with knives carve off their heads. At least a dozen killings are visible, but it isn't clear in the video whether all 21 were killed. Inside the church in the tiny Christian-majority vil- lage of el-Aour, home to 13 of the 21, relatives wept Monday and shouted the names of the dead in shock. Babawi Walham, his eyes swollen from crying and barely able to speak, recounted how he and his extended family saw news of the video's release on Egyptian TV Sunday night. His brother, a 30-year-old plumber named Samuel, was one of the men in the video. "Each one of us was filled with grief, some col- lapsed or passed out. Our life has been turned upside down," he told The Associ- ated Press. "I watched the video. I saw my brother. My heart stopped beating. I felt what he felt." "I want the bodies back. These are good people. These are martyrs," he said. With almost no state con- trol in much of Libya, ex- tremists loyal to the Islamic State have seized control Darna and the central city of Sirte and have built up a powerful presence in the capital Tripoli and the sec- ond-largest city Benghazi. Libyan Interior Minis- ter Omar al-Sinki has said some 400 militants from Yemen and Tunisia have joined up with Libyan mi- litias vowing allegiance to the Islamic State group. Without publicly ac- knowledging it, Egypt and the United Arab Emir- ates carried out airstrikes against Islamist-allied mi- litias last year, according to U.S. officials. Egypt and the Gulf are backing Lib- ya's internationally recog- nized government, which was driven into the far east of Libya after Islamist mili- tias took control of the cap- ital, Tripoli. The Foreign Ministry in Cairo called Monday for political and material sup- port from the U.S.-led co- alition staging airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. But Egyptian security of- ficials said Cairo does not want to be drawn into a costly ground war, and for now, wants any foreign military intervention re- stricted to airstrikes. WAR ON TERRORISM Eg yp t st ri ke s IS i n Li by a, pushes for global action HASSANAMMAR—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A man mourns over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, inside the Virgin Mary Church in the village of el-Aour, near Minya, south of Cairo, Egypt, on Monday. GENE J. PUSKAR — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE A customer inserts a debit card into an ATM in Pittsburgh. By Josh Boak The Associated Press WASHINGTON The hacker gang that looted as much as $1 billion worldwide from banks was unusual: It stole directly from the banks, instead of ripping off their customers. But this was hardly a bit of Robin Hood ban- ditry that spared innocent account holders. Security experts say consumers still need to keep a close eye on their checking and savings, as epic computer breaches such as this theft — documented in a report issued Monday — are be- coming all too common. "Customers are still at risk," said Sergey Go- lovanov, a researcher at the Russian cybersecu- rity firm Kaspersky Lab that released the report. "Criminals had access to all banking infrastructure, so they were able to get any data about customers." Doug Johnson, se- nior vice president at the American Bankers Asso- ciation, said there's no ev- idence that any U.S. bank has been a victim of this particular breach. Still, the report found that some of the proceeds were depos- ited with banks in China and the United States. The hacks detailed in the report, which was pre- sented at a security con- ference in Cancun, Mex- ico, are the latest twist on data breaches that have struck not just banks but the health insurer Anthem and major retailers such as Target and Home Depot. And just like those thefts, experts say there are sim- ple protections that con- sumers can take. For starters, most Ameri- can bank customers are in- sured against theft by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The insurance applies to any sum up to $250,000 in checking, a savings ac- count or a certificate of de- posit at a U.S. bank. Still, more people have become vigilant about monitoring their transac- tions and responding to alerts from their banks if a charge or withdrawal appears to be suspicious. "We all look at our bank statements a hell of a lot more carefully than 20 years ago," said John Gunn, vice president of communications at VASCO Data Security, which pro- vides authentication soft- ware for financial institu- tions. There are other simple moves that individuals can do to guard their financial data, said Stu Sjouwer- man, founder of the data security firm KnowBe4. Even if it appears to be from their bank, people should never open email attachments that they didn't request. Nor should they click on links inside emails, but instead type the name of their bank into the Web browser ad- dress bar. And they should only provide a Social Secu- rity number or account in- formation over the phone on calls that they initiated. "Those are the normal things you would recom- mend consumers to use," Sjouwerman said. It appears as though the hacker gang accessed com- puters by having bank em- ployees click on email at- tachments. The hackers relied on a technique known as "spear phishing," in which they sent emails from a fake ac- count that looked familiar to the bank workers. Those emails infected the com- puter with a form of mal- ware called Carbanak and gave the gang entry into the internal network, allowing them to mimic the actions of workers responsible for the cash transfer systems. In a plan that smacked of a Hollywood thriller, the hackers then lurked unseen in the systems of more than 100 banks in 30 countries, according to the Kaspersky Lab report. Working in stealth for months, the group would learn how each bank oper- ated and used that knowl- edge to steal up to about $10 million in each raid, a sum just small enough to go nearly undetected in the daily shuffle of money. Their intended targets were primarily in Rus- sia, followed by the United States, Germany, China and Ukraine, Kaspersky said. Hackers' $1 billion bank the may still impact consumers CYBERSECURITY By Darlene Superville The Associated Press RANCHO MIRAGE A White House summit this week on countering violent extrem- ism will not focus exclu- sively on threats from the Islamic State group, senior administration officials said Monday. While the militant group, which has killed several Americans and others it had been holding hostage, poses a near-term threat to the United States, one of three officials previewing the summit for reporters on Monday said violent ex- tremists "come in all shapes and sizes." The three-day confer- ence will highlight domes- tic and international efforts to prevent extremists and their supporters from radi- calizing, recruiting and in- spiring others, particularly disaffected young people. The conference is designed to share best practices and emerging strategies to pre- vent extremists from carry- ing out violent acts. A series of deadly attacks have been carried out in Denmark, France, Canada, Australia and elsewhere before and after the White House announced the sum- mit last month. Vice President Joe Biden opens the summit Tuesday by meeting with represen- tatives from Boston, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. The three cities have pro- grams in place to counter extremism and one official said the White House wants to "push them forward" as examples for the rest of the country. President Barack Obama is scheduled to address a gathering at the White House on Wednesday that will examine how U.S. cit- ies are dealing with these issues. Obama will also deliver remarks Thursday at the State Department, where representatives of some 60 countries are scheduled to meet. The White House did not release the complete list of participating countries, though representatives from the United Kingdom, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are expected to attend, one of the officials said. FIGHTING EXTREMISM White House summit won't focus solely on IS group JACQUELYN MARTIN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE President Barack Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden, le , and Secretary of State John Kerry, right, speaks about the Islamic State group in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Chris' HerbShop (530)528-2930 333 So. 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