CAIRO
An Egyptian official said early Sunday that some 3,107 Egyptians had returned from Libya through the western Salloum border crossing within the last 24 hours.
Saturday's figures bring the total number of Egyptians who have crossed back from Libya through Salloum over the past week to 9,034, according to statements from the security directorate of the border Matrouh province.
"The number of Egyptians coming back from Libya through the Salloum terminal has risen over the past 24 hours," Al-Anani Hammouda, security chief of Egypt's Matrouh province, told The Anadolu Agency.
"Some 3,107 have returned in one day, when the normal average is usually in the hundreds," Hammouda said.
Numerous Egyptian expatriates have sought to flee Libya since Monday, when Egypt launched a series of airstrikes targeting suspected Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) sites in Libya's eastern city of Darnah.
The strikes came one day after a video appeared online purportedly showing the execution by masked ISIL militants of 21 Egyptian nationals in Libya.
Fractious Libya has remained a source of concern for neighboring Egypt since it descended into violence and chaos following the ouster and death of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
