At Least 5 Soldiers Killed in Attacks in Egypt's Sinai

Seven Egyptian soldiers and seven militants were killed today in at least two attacks in North Sinai where the army is battling the local branch of the Islamic State group, police said.

Gunmen opened fire on soldiers with automatic rifles and rockets at checkpoints in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, the Egyptian crossing point to the Palestinian Gaza Strip, police officials told AFP, calling the assailants "terrorists".

A third attack took place in North Sinai, but police did not specify where.

At least seven soldiers were killed and 8 military personnel wounded, the officials said, adding that seven "terrorist elements" have been killed during the gunfights.

In a separate incident, a mortar shell fell on a house east of the provincial capital El-Arish, wounding three civilians, police and health officials said.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) changed its name last year to the Sinai Province, after pledging allegiance to IS, which controls large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria.