A radical Islamist group claimed responsibility yesterday for two suicide bombings which killed a soldier and wounded at least eight other people near the Egyptian tourist city of Sharm El-Sheikh on Friday.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, the most active of the militant groups waging an insurgency against the army-backed government since it deposed elected leader Mohamed Morsi last summer, made the claim in a statement posted online.

“We announce our responsibility for the attacks which targeted a security checkpoint and a tourist bus in South Sinai,” the statement said.

“We will not rest... until we avenge Muslims' blood and honour.”

Militant attacks and other political violence have intensified since the army overthrew Morsi last July following mass protests against his rule. Many hundreds of Morsi supporters have been killed in the subsequent crackdown and tens of thousands arrested, including top leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, which says it remains committed to peaceful activism.

There are fears that anti-government violence will escalate in the run-up to presidential elections on May 26 and 27 which former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led Morsi's ousting, is widely expected to win.

The militant group’s statement called on Egyptians to violently oppose the government and not to rely on peaceful actions.