The head of the Third Police Station in Al-Arish, North Sinai, was shot in the leg by unknown assailants on Tuesday, just two days after a suicide bomber claimed the lives of six in the vicinity of the station.

He was transported to the hospital and is currently receiving medical care, the Ahram Arabic news website reported.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber sought to ram a van laden with explosives into a checkpoint in the vicinity of the police station. The vehicle exploded when police forces opened fire at it, killing at least five policemen and one civilian.

Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for the attack, as they have most recent attacks against army and police personnel in the peninsula.

In recent months, the group has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, which controls large swathes of lands in Syria and Iraq.

Egypt's army has been fighting a decade-long militant Islamist insurgency, which has spiked since the ouster of democratically-elected Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi in summer 2013.

Hundreds of police and soldiers, as well as civilians, have been killed in militant attacks in the past months.