4 Egyptian soldiers die in anti-IS operation in Sinai

CAIRO, Egypt — Four Egyptian soldiers were killed in the Sinai Peninsula, where the local branch of the Islamic State group regularly attacks security forces, the army said Sunday.

The troops were killed during operations around el-Arish in the northern Sinai, close to the border with the Gaza Strip, army spokesman Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said on Facebook.

Six jihadists were killed during the same operation and others were arrested, he said.

Also in el-Arish, three policemen and three civilians were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near a security convoy, the interior ministry’s Facebook page said.

The authorities are checking body parts found at the scene that officials suspect are the remains of the bomber, the statement said.

In a statement posted on social media, the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt claimed the attack, which damaged an armored vehicle and a police car.

Egypt’s army has been battling an Islamist insurgency in northern Sinai that escalated since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The government says hundreds of police and soldiers have died in the attacks, which have also hit Cairo and the Nile Delta.

Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Egyptian IS affiliate.

The jihadist group also said it was responsible for the bombing of a Russian plane over Sinai, in October 2015, which killed all 224 people on board, most of them Russian holidaymakers