Cairo: The death toll in a suicide car bombing, which Friday targeted an army checkpoint in Egypt's volatile Sinai, has risen to 26 soldiers, Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency (Mena).
The assault in Al Arish in North Sinai is Egypt's deadliest in months. The BBC, quoting unnamed officials, reported up to 29 soldiers were killed in the increasingly restive region.
Twenty-eight were also wounded in the attack, believed to be carried out by Islamist militants.
Those with serious injuries were transported by military planes to Cairo for medical treatment, according to Mena.
President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi held an emergency meeting of the National Defence Council following the attack.
Attending the meeting were the prime ministers and ministers of the defence, interior and foreign affairs as well as senior army commanders.
Al Sissi, an ex-army chief, announced a three-day national mourning starting from Saturday, state media reported. A military funeral is expected to be held for the dead soldiers on Saturday.
Attack condemned
State-run and private TV stations changed their normal broadcasting and aired special programmes with a black frame shown at the top side of the screen in a sign of mourning.
Meanwhile, Egypt's top Muslim cleric, the Grand Mufti, condemned the attack as a "dastardly terrorist act".
"Perpetrators of these terrorist acts are corrupt and deserve God's punishment in this life and in the Hereafter," Shaikh Shawqi Allam said in a statement.
The eminent cleric urged security forces to strike with "iron fist" against those "tampering with security of the country and its people".
Egypt has seen a surge in deadly attacks on security forces since mid-2013 when the army toppled Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.
Most of the attacks have been claimed by radical Islamist groups.
UAE statement
In Abu Dhabi, the UAE Foreign Ministry has condemned the Friday terrorist attack in Sinai and the criminals that perpetrated it.
The UAE also stressed its solidarity with Egypt and its armed forces.
The UAE Foreign Ministry’s communique said that this cowardly crime affirms the need for serious joint action to face terrorism regionally and internationally.
