A policeman and two conscripts are still missing three days after their checkpoint in North Sinai was hit by a mortar attack launched by Islamist militants, according to Ahram Arabic news website.

A security source told Ahram late on Monday that the whereabouts of the three "missing" policemen are still unknown.

The interior ministry has not issued any statements about any personnel missing since the attack. 

Ahmed Abdel-Rahim, the brother of missing policeman Mohamed Abdel-Rahim, told TV host Ahmed Moussa that the trio may have been abducted.

Ahmed said the security directorate in North Sinai confirmed to him that his brother was not among the dead or injured accounted for after Saturday's attack, police are searching for Mohamed.

“I call on the authorities to intensify the search,” the brother stated, adding that his family wants to know his fate, dead or alive.

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, an affiliate of the Islamic State group that has executed militant attacks in North Sinai and mainland Egypt, claimed responsibility for El-Safa checkpoint attack.

North Sinai militants have primarily attempt to kill security personnel, but on a few occasions have kidnapped them.

In one incident Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis kidnapped a police officer and forced him to denounce Egypt’s army and government on tape before executing him with a gunshot to the head.