14 killed in IS bombings in Egypt's Sinai

Two bomb attacks claimed by Egyptian jihadists loyal to the Islamic State group killed on Sunday at least 14 people in the restive Sinai Peninsula, including 11 security personnel.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has carried out a slew of attacks in Sinai since the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, claimed responsibility.

A roadside bomb attack on an army vehicle killed six soldiers and wounded two near the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid, a jihadist stronghold.

"An armoured personnel carrier for the army of the apostates was destroyed... killing and wounding all aboard," Ansar Beit al-Madqis said on a Twitter account attributed to it.

The military said six soldiers were killed in the attack.

"Their vehicle was targeted by an explosive device placed by the extremist terrorist elements which left an officer, a sergeant, and four soldiers martyred, and two other soldiers wounded," it said on its Facebook page.

SUICIDE CAR BOMB

Hours later a suicide car bomb targeting a police station in North Sinai's provincial capital of El-Arish killed eight people and wounded 45 others, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Gaffar said.

The interior ministry said in a separate statement that five policemen and a civilian were among those killed in the police station bombing, while several policemen were wounded.

It said security forces fired at the vehicle before it was able to ram the police station.

A police officer said the truck was loaded with explosives but covered with straw, and blew up close to the police station.

"A den of the apostate police was targeted in El-Arish by a car bomb driven by a martyr," Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.

The group changed its name last year to the Sinai Province after pledging allegiance to IS.

It has claimed several sophisticated attacks in Sinai and the Nile valley and now wants to establish a province of the self-declared IS "caliphate".

AFP