The death-toll has risen to six military personnel - five soldiers and one officer - in an attack on an army vehicle by gunmen near Egypt's Suez Canal city of Ismailia Monday morning.

A drive-by shooting by four yet-unknown masked gunmen targeted a military truck west of Ismailia at around 9:30 am, where one officer and five soldiers were killed, a security official told Ahram's Arabic news website.

The official said the gunmen fired at the truck until it stopped moving, when three of them got out of the car and aimed machine guns directly at the victims.

Security forces are combing the area to locate the assailants, the official added.

Militants have previously targeted the army around the Suez Canal.

On Friday, two conscripts were killed, and onother and an officer injured in a drive-by shooting targeting a military armed personnel carrier on the Cairo-Ismailia highway.