6 Egyptian soldiers killed in Sinai blasts targeting armored vehicles

At least six Egyptian soldiers were killed and six others wounded Tuesday as two improvised explosive devices targeted their two armored vehicles on a highway in restive North Sinai, a security source in the peninsula told Xinhua.

"Following the blasts, the security forces combed the area in search for the perpetrators and the injured soldiers were taken for a military hospital for treatment," the source added.

The ages of the soldiers varied between 20 and 45 and the blasts took place on Arish-Sheikh Zuweid highway according to state-run Al-Ahram news website.

A wave of anti-government terror attacks has been growing in Egypt since the military removed former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and later blacklisted his Muslim Brotherhood group.

A Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional terror group claimed responsibility for most of the terrorist operations that killed hundreds of police and military men over the past three years.

The Egyptian military has been launching a continuous massive security campaign in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula that left about 1,000 militants killed and a similar number of suspects arrested.

The security raids in Sinai are part of the country's "war against terrorism" declared by ex-military chief and now President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi following Morsi's ouster. Enditem