Five security personnel were also injured in the attack, the army spokesman has said, adding that the security forces “foiled a terrorist attack” on a water-lifting station east of the Suez Canal.
“The terrorist elements are being chased and besieged in one of the isolated areas in Sinai,” the spokesman added in a statement on Saturday, AlJazeera reported.
The military gave no further details or the attack’s precise location, but two northern Sinai residents told Associated Press the attack took place in the town of Qantara in the province of Ismailia, which stretches eastwards from the Suez Canal.
No group claimed responsibility for Saturday’s ambush, one of the deadliest attacks against Egyptian security forces in recent years.
Last week, suspected fighters blew up a natural gas pipeline in northern Sinai’s town of Bir al-Abd, causing a fire but no casualties.
ZZ/PR