In five separate militant attacks, two Egyptian military officers and a soldier were killed and eight others were wounded today in the restive northeastern region of the Sinai Peninsula, security officials said.
The officials said that a roadside bomb struck an armored vehicle carrying soldiers to Sheikh Zuwaid near the city of el-Arish, killing one army officer and one soldier and injuring four others. A second armored vehicle also came under attack in southern Sheikh Zuwaid, injuring two others, they said.
A sniper fire killed one officer and injured a second in a checkpoint in a district called Beir Lahfan, south of el-Arish. In two separate shooting incidents, two other soldiers were wounded after militants opened fire on their checkpoints in Rafah.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks but the local affiliate of the Islamic State group is the most active faction and it has claimed responsibility to the near-daily attacks in the region.
Egypt has battled Islamic extremists in Sinai for years, but the insurgency has grown deadlier and spread into the mainland since the 2013 ouster of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
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