Egyptian security officials say suspected Islamic militants have bombed a natural gas pipeline to Jordan south of the city of el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula.

The attacks early Sunday on two points on the pipeline started fires that were soon put out, but the flow of gas was disrupted, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

It was the first attack on Egypt's natural gas pipelines in Sinai in over a year.

In January, suspected Islamic militants attacked a police patrol along a Sinai pipeline, wounding seven policemen. The pipeline had come under attack more than a dozen times in the previous two years.