CAIRO, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's armed forces killed 40 militants Friday after suicide bombing and shooting on an army check point in North Sinai that killed at least ten soldiers, the army said in a statement.
"The armed forces have foiled a terrorist attack launched by Takfir elements on some army security points in south Rafah city, bordering Palestinian Gaza Strip," Tamer el Refai, spokesperson of the armed forces said.
"During the security operation, some forty militants have been killed, and other six vehicles used by the terrorists have been destroyed," the statement added.
The army statement said the car bombing killed and wounded some 26 soldiers.
It added the forces were tracking the militants in the nearby villages.
Earlier, an official security source told Xinhua that at least ten Egyptian soldiers were killed and twenty others injured in two car explosions and a later shooting at army checkpoint in North Sinai's city of Rafah.
"A car broke into an army checkpoint in the village of Al-Bars, south of Rafah," the source said.
The explosion was followed by heavy gunfire from dozens of masked militants.
Ambulances rushed into the scene, and the security forces were combing the nearby roads in search for perpetrators.
The sources said the militants belong to Sinai-based Sinai State group, which declared loyalty to the Islamic State (IS) group in 2014.
However, no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Egypt faces waves of anti-security attacks led by IS in North Sinai, since the army-led ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 in response to mass protests against his rule.
Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed during the attacks.
