A first lieutenant, a sergeant and four conscripts were killed when their armoured vehicle was bombed in North Sinai on Sunday morning, army spokesman Mohamed Samir announced on Sunday.

Two other soldiers were also injured when the roadside bomb exploded on the Al-Arish to Sheikh Zuweid highway.

The injured were taken to Al-Arish military hospital.

Egypt's army has been fighting a decade-long militant Islamist insurgency that has spiked since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in summer 2013.

Hundreds of police and soldiers as well civilians have been killed in militant attacks.

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, an Islamist militant group, has claimed many of the attacks against the army and police in Sinai. In November 2014, the group swore allegiance to Islamic State, which has taken over vast areas of Syria and Iraq and now operates in Libya.