The eighth person beheaded by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis in under a month.

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Residents in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula said on Wednesday they found a beheaded corpse bearing a note signed by an Islamist militant group linked to the Syria and Iraq-based Islamic State, accusing the victim of being an Israeli spy.

The beheading is the eighth claimed by the group in Sinai in under a month in a surge of brutal killings seemingly inspired by Islamic State, which has been internationally condemned for its atrocities and has been the target of US air strikes.

Residents from a village south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai told Reuters by phone that the decapitated body bore a note signed by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, saying he was an agent for Israeli spy agency Mossad.

“This is the fate of all who prove to be traitors to their homeland,” the group said in the note, according to the villagers.

A senior Ansar commander told Reuters last week that Islamic State, an al-Qaida offshoot that controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq, had been advising the Sinai-based group on how to operate more effectively.