An army soldier was killed Tuesday in an exchange of fire with suspected militants in the restive Sinai Peninsula, a security source told state news agency MENA.

MENA said the slain was shot dead during an army raid on a suspected militant hideout in a Rafah border town in northern Sinai.

In the same raid, the armed forces killed eight suspected militants and arrested 11 others, military spokesman Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said on his official Facebook page.

The military has launched a wide-range offensive to quash the growing insurgency in Sinai that has targeted security forces and installations intensively since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi last year.