How HITLER is helping ISIS: Jihadis dig up Nazi mines buried in Egypt in World War Two to boost their arsenal of deadly explosives

ISIS and other jihadi groups have been digging up landmines and bombs buried by the Nazis during World War Two in order to boost their weapons arsenals.

Egypt is thought to be home to more than 20 per cent of the total number of landmines in the world, with a massive swathe of land affected - some estimates put the total at about 15500 square miles.

The landmines were planted between 1940 and 1943 during the battles involving Britain and its allies, including Egyptian forces, fighting German and Italian forces for control of North Africa.

As a result Egypt is believed to be the most landmine contaminated country in world - with an estimated 23million landmines buried in the desert and surrounding areas.

Of those, 17.5million were buried during the Second World War which saw Germany's Afrika Korps battle against Britain's 8th Army in the Battle of El Alamein for control of North Africa.

Newsweek reports that as ISIS and other jihadi groups have started burying for this massive cache of explosives, much of which was buried by the Nazis.

Military and civilian officials in Cairo said ISIS and other groups have already started digging up the old landminds and are now using their components for bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

'We've had at least 10 reports from the military of terrorists using old mines,' Fathy el-Shazly, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told Newsweek.

'Even now, these things trouble us in different ways.'

He said it began in 2004 when extremists used old landmines to create seven bombs which were used to kill 34 people in the Sinai resort of Taba.

In March a group of jihadis launched an attack on an army convoy using explosives they had taken from World War Two landmines, killing five Egyptian soldiers.

Officials are now trying to tackle the threat with efforts to clear the mines. More than three million have been removed since 1981 - but the government claims it will remove the remainder in the next three years.

More than 4,000 Allied servicemen lost their lives and almost 9,000 were wounded in the Battle of El Alamein which saw General Sir Bernard Montgomery's troops defeat German general Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps.

El Alamein was the first major Allied victory of the Second World War, and it is important that we never forget all those who fought so valiantly, including more than 4,000 men who lost their lives.'

Under the command of General Montgomery, nearly 200,000 British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, British Indian, Free French and Greek forces defeated the Axis powers.

At the time of the battle, which began on October 23, 1942 and ended on November 4, the Allies were fighting to keep their vital supply lines open from the Mediterranean to the East.

Rommel had inflicted heavy defeats on Allied forces in Africa, forcing them back to the village of El Alamein, about 60 miles west of Alexandria.

Finally, on October 23 General Montgomery ordered a counter-attack with almost 900 guns levelled at the German positions to be discharged at once.

While previously the Suez Canal was threatened, and with it Allied access to the rich oilfields of the Middle East, now the Allies were able to press their advantage and eventually push the Germans and Italians out of Africa.

Recalling the importance of the Allied victory at the Battle of El Alamein, Sir Winston Churchill said: 'Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.'

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