The Egyptian army launched an attack against Islamist militants in North Sinai on Saturday, killing at least nine people, security officials said.
Two Egyptian soldiers were killed late on Saturday when an improvised explosive device detonated in a road in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid near the border with the Gaza Strip, security sources said.
Radical Islamists in the rugged desert region adjoining Israel, who expanded into a security vacuum left by the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, have been staging almost daily assaults on security forces and other targets.
Dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles backed by attack helicopters were used earlier in Saturday’s operation near Sheikh Zuweid, a few kilometres (miles) from the Palestinian Gaza Strip, security sources said.
The army said nine militants had been arrested.