At least 13 militants were killed by the Egyptian armed forces on Saturday in the country's North Sinai province, a security source told Xinhua.
"Some of the extremists have been preparing to carry out a big terrorist operation west of Arish airport when the armed forces raided them," the source said.
The militants were believed to be the members of the Sinai-based and Al Qaeda-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) group.
The source added that the security forces managed to foil an attempt by a suicide bomber to break into a gathering of armed forces personnel south of the Sheikh Zuweid city. "The sniper forces shot him (the suicide bomber) dead," the source said.
The raids were part of a massive security campaign that the Egyptian leadership had launched against extremists following the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the military in July 2013.
On Friday, security raids on extremists in North Sinai's Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid cities killed at least 10 extremists.
Terrorist activities have increased in Egypt since Morsi's ouster and the ensuing crackdown on his loyalists that left about 1,000 killed and thousands more arrested.
Hundreds of police and army personnel have also been killed in anti-government attacks carried out by extremists and self-proclaimed Islamists.
Most of the attacks have taken place in the restive Sinai peninsula, but they have extended to the capital Cairo and a number of provinces across the country.
Egypt's new leadership, led by former army chief and now president, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, has declared a war against self-proclaimed Islamists who support Morsi.
The ABM group, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), is a regional militant group that had changed its name into "Sinai State". It has claimed responsibility for most of the anti-government attacks in Egypt.
