Two Egyptian army officers were killed and four others were injured on Saturday morning after their armored vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb attack in Sheikh Zuweid city in the northern Sinai Peninsula, according to Egyptian security sources.
The sources said that an armored vehicle was scanning an area in the southern outskirts of the city when gunmen detonated a “huge” roadside bomb where the vehicle was driving.
The bodies of the deceased and the injured soldiers were all evacuated to a military hospital in the nearby al-Arish city.
Sources highlighted that clashes broke out between Egyptian troops and gunmen in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah cities.
The gunmen behind the attack were believed to be affiliated to the Sinai Province group, which has claimed responsibility in a number of attacks on Egyptian military forces in recent months.
Egyptian military and police forces have been the target of ongoing attacks, which have increased since Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi took power from democratically-elected Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.
The Egyptian president came under attack following his violent suppression of Muslim Brotherhood members following his rise to power, which Sisi has argued is necessary to deter future attacks in the Sinai and across Egypt.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the militant group responsible for a majority of attacks on military personnel, aligned with the Islamic State (ISIS) group in November 2014, changing its name to Sinai Province.
