Cairo: Six Egyptian soldiers were killed and two wounded in a bomb attack on their armoured vehicle in the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, the army said.
A militant group which has pledged allegiance to Daesh in Iraq and Syria said it had carried out the attack.
The bombing came near the North Sinai town of Shaikh Zuweid, an area known as a stronghold of the militants, security officials said.
Egypt’s deadliest militant group, Ansar Bait Al Maqdis, which pledged allegiance to Daesh in November, claimed the attack on a Twitter account attributed to it.
“An armoured personnel carrier for the army of the apostates was destroyed ... killing and wounding all aboard,” it said.
The army has sent troops and armour to fight a dogged insurgency in the Sinai that has grown since then army chief and now President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi ousted his Islamist predecessor, Mohammad Mursi, in July 2013.
Ansar Bait Al Maqdis says its repeated attacks on the security forces are in retaliation for a government crackdown against Mursi’s supporters.
On Saturday, a Cairo court confirmed death sentences against Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Badie and 13 others for protest violence.
