Cairo: The Egyptian army killed 19 militants south of Sheikh Zuweid city in the restive North Sinai province on Saturday, the state-run Al-Ahram news website reported.

The security forces also arrested six terrorist suspects and destroyed 23 hideouts, 27 vehicles, two digging loaders and two motorbikes, Al-Ahram quoted security sources as saying.

On Friday, similar security operations killed 60 militants and wounded 40 others in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, according to a statement by the military spokesman.

Increasing terror attacks have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers nationwide since the military overthrew the former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Last week, a mortar attack on a security checkpoint in North Sinai’s Arish city killed 15 policemen.

Most of the anti-government attacks were claimed by a Sinai-based militant group calling itself ‘Sinai State’ which vows its loyalty to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.