Blast kills 3 soldiers in Egypt's Sinai

Three army personnel, including an officer, were killed by a roadside bomb in Rafah, North Sinai, early Monday, state-owned news agency MENA reported.

An armoured vehicle was hit by a blast while patrolling on a high way, leaving three dead and one injured. Security troops are combing the area for more bombs and hunting for extremists.

A state of high alert was announced in North Sinai after the incident, with all exits and entrances to the governorate sealed off and more troops patrolling the streets.

Terrorist activities have mounted in Egypt since the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the army in July 2013 and the subsequent security crackdown on his loyalists that left about 1,000 dead and thousands more arrested.

Hundreds of police and army personnel were killed in anti-government attacks carried out by extremist and self-proclaimed Islamists.

Most of attacks took place in the restive peninsula but they extended to reach the capital Cairo and other provinces across the country.

The Sinai-based Al-Qaida-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group, which has recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group and changed its name into "Sinai State," claimed responsibility for most of the anti-government attacks in Egypt. Endit