A military officer and a solider were killed late Thursday when a bomb struck an Egyptian army vehicle in the volatile Sinai Peninsula, a hotbed of Islamist insurgency, the army has said.

Another solider was injured in the attack that occurred south of the North Sinai town of Al-Arish, army spokesman Mohamed Samir added in a statement.

The area has been the scene of a series of attacks by Islamist militants against security forces.

Egypt's army has struggled to crush militant violence based in the peninsula that has spiked since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and at times expanded to mainland cities, including Cairo.

The army began late October demolishing houses and clearing residents in the Sinai border city of Rafah to set up a buffer zone, after 31 soldiers were killed in two militant attacks in Al-Arish, the deadliest violence on Egyptian troops in recent times.

Authorities said the move is aimed at deterring militant infiltration and arms smuggling.