A senior army commander survived a bomb attack in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, state news agency MENA reported.

Suspected militants placed the bomb on the highway linking Al-Qusaima and Al-Housna in central Sinai.

General Said Abdel-Karim and at least three other soldiers were wounded in the attack.

The army has poured troops and armour into the peninsula to fight a militant insurgency that has intensified since the military's popularly-backed overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July.

Dozens of soldiers and policemen have been killed in near daily attacks in the peninsula near the border with Israel.

The region's Bedouin population has long complained of marginalisation and neglect from the government, which has led many to take up arms against the state.

Violent attacks were reported in several parts of the peninsula on Wednesday.

Unknown assailants exchanged fire with security forces at a military intelligence headquarters in the northern town of Rafah, leaving no injuries, MENA said. 

Also in the north, unidentified assailants opened fire separately at an armoured personnel carrier and a security checkpoint in the town of Al-Arish.

A twin bomb linked to a Palestinian mobile phone sim card was found at an empty military intelligence office in Rafah that had been bombed earlier in the day, security sources told MENA.