Six Egyptian army officers were killed yesterday in two car bomb explosions near military units in the Sinai Peninsula, close to the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, a military statement said.

Another 10 military officers and seven civilians were wounded in the attacks in the border town of Rafah, also close to Israel, in an area of North Sinai that has seen a sharp rise in militant attacks since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July.

An earlier report by state TV said rocket-propelled grenades had been fired at a military facility in Sinai. It was not clear if this was a separate attack. Witnesses said they heard explosions and saw clashes between militants and troops in the area.

The Sinai-based Islamist militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for an attempt last week to kill the Egyptian interior minister in Cairo and promised more attacks in revenge for the new army-backed government’s crackdown on Egypt’s Islamists.

The army launched an offensive against Islamist militants near Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai this week. The troops deployed dozens of tanks as well as armoured vehicles and attack helicopters, killing or wounding at least 30 people and arresting nine suspects, according to security officials.

Meanwhile an army prosecutor sent an Egyptian journalist to a military court yesterday for allegedly publishing false news and tipping Islamist militants to the location of troops in the Sinai region bordering on Israel, an army statement said.