Egypt’s military chief of staff flew to the United States for an international conference on fighting terrorism and militancy, a spokesperson for the armed forces said on Thursday.

Lieutenant General Mahmoud Hegazy attended the 21-nation coalition meeting held in Washington D.C. to address the threat posed by the Islamic State group which now controls large swaths of Syria and Iraq and has threatened other countries in the region, Egypt’s state news agency MENA reported on Wednesday.

The army’s official Facebook page, which announced Hegazy’s visit only Thursday, said that Cairo’s participation confirms Egypt’s stance on “fighting terrorism” and “drying up its sources inside Egypt’s territory and not outside of it,” in a way that “eliminates terrorism’s roots,” spokesperson Mohamed Samir said.

The US-led coalition has stepped up airstrikes against IS fighters.

Although Egypt said it will not send troops to fight alongside the coalition, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has said Cairo would support the American efforts in other ways. Cairo has spoken of a strategy that includes spreading moderate Islamic teachings that will help eradicate the roots of jihadist activity.

Relations between Cairo and Washington have warmed up recently after souring in the months that followed the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Since Morsi's ouster in July of 2013, the US had regularly criticised some Egyptian policies it described as a breach of human rights and democracy and had suspended large sums of military aid, including the delivery of Apache helicopters to Egypt.

On Tuesday, an Egyptian air force official said ten US Apache helicopters were on their way to Egypt in support of Cairo's counter-terrorism efforts. The announcement came several months after the US had promised it would lift the delivery hold in April.