Cairo: At least 32 people, including 27 soldiers, were killed and 60 others injured in Egypt's restive North Sinai in a series of simultaneous attacks by a group that recently pledged allegiance to Islamic State, forcing President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to cut short his foreign visit.
Militants fired a barrage of rockets and set off a car bombs in a series of attacks since Thursday night, killing at least 27 soldiers, five civilians, officials said.
Two children, one of them 6 months old, were among the dead.
The attacks targeted the headquarters of the North Sinai security directorate in the provincial capital of Al-Arish, a nearby army base, a hotel and several security checkpoints, state TV and the Ahram Arabic news website reported.
"Militants fired mortar rounds and used car bombs in the attacks," Egyptian TV reported.
"At least three missile shells and a car bomb were used in separate attacks," a source said.
President el-Sisi cut short his visit to Ethiopia, where he was attending a summit of the African Union, following news of the attacks.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the Egyptian wing of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, claimed responsibility for the attacks in the area, where the army is battling an Islamist insurgency that has raged since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The armed group claimed via a Twitter account that it "executed extensive, simultaneous attacks in the cities of El-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah".
The group in November last year pledged allegiance to the ISIS that has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
The Egyptian army said that militant attacks won't deter the armed forces from their "holy duty of uprooting terrorism."
The attacks are the deadliest assaults on security forces in recent years. In October last year, militants killed at least 33 security personnel in the Sinai Province.
Meanwhile, a police officer was killed in a bomb blast targeting a police building in the Canal city of Suez.
The officer was on duty when the explosion occurred. The attack took place shortly after the serial attacks in North Sinai.
Last week, the curfew in parts of North Sinai was extended for another three months. The curfew was initially imposed?on October 25 following the attack of soldiers.
Following the attack, the government decided to create a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip.
Egypt's Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 evolution that toppled ex-president Hosni Mubarak.
The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Over 500 security personnel have been killed since then.
