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Bomb attacks kill soldier, wound five in Egypt's Sinai


    ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - An Egyptian soldier was killed and five wounded on Thursday when roadside bombs hit two military armoured vehicles in the Northern Sinai region, medical and security sources said.

    Two bombs hit an armoured vehicle in the town of Sheikh Zuweid killing a noncommissioned officer and wounding three other soldiers, an army spokesman said in a statement on his official Facebook page.

    In response, a military helicopter killed three "terrorist elements" in a car while fleeing the scene, he added.

    North Sinai is at the heart of an insurgency that has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since 2013 when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi. Sisi was elected president last year.

    Later on Thursday, two soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted an armoured vehicle in a village in the area of Rafah, security sources said.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings. Sinai Province, a militant group that has declared allegiance to Islamic State, has claimed such attacks in the past.

    Two students from a military academy were killed on Wednesday when a bomb blast hit a minibus in the northern city of Kafr al-Sheikh.

    (Reporting by Yusri Mohamd in Ismailia; Writing by Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by Sylvia Westall and Robin Pomeroy)