A foreign fighter captured during a raid on Islamist militants blamed by Egypt for a deadly attack in its western desert last month is a Libyan national, the Egyptian interior ministry said on Thursday.

The captured fighter, Abdelrahim Mohamed al-Mesmari, 25, is from the eastern Libyan town of Derna, an interior ministry statement said.

A little-known group called Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility for the Oct. 21 attack. Three security sources said at the time that at least 52 police officers and conscripts were killed but the interior ministry refuted that figure the next day and said only 16 policemen had been killed.

Read more: Reuters