Militant Bomb Attack In Egypt's North Sinai Kills Six Soldiers: Army

(Reuters) - Egypt's military said a bomb detonated by militants killed six soldiers and wounded two others in Egypt's North Sinai on Sunday, a region beset by Islamist insurgents.

The army said in a statement that "terrorist and extremist elements" were behind the roadside attack on an armored military vehicle in the town of Sheik Zuweid. Two of those killed were officers, it said.

A Twitter feed that describes itself as the official account for Sinai Province, a militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the attack.

North Sinai is the epicenter of an insurgency that has killed hundreds of members of the security services since mid-2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after mass protests against his rule. Sisi was overwhelmingly elected president last year.

Sinai Province, previously known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, has claimed other deadly attacks on soldiers in the Sinai.

It renamed itself last year after swearing allegiance to Islamic State, the ultra-radical Sunni militant group that has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, drawing U.S.-led air strikes.