CAIRO
Six people, including five policemen, were killed Sunday in a car bombing in the vicinity of a local police station in Egypt's northeastern Sinai Peninsula, the Interior Ministry has confirmed.
In a statement, the ministry said a suicide bomber had driven an explosive-packed car through a checkpoint outside the Third Arish Police Station.
Security forces manning the checkpoint opened fire on the car, which led to its explosion, it added.
The bombing left five policemen and one civilian dead and many policemen and civilians injured, said the ministry, giving no specific number of the injured.
However, medical and security sources told The Anadolu Agency earlier that the explosion had left 41 people wounded, including 20 policemen.
According to one source, a colonel was among the five policemen killed in the explosion.
Welayet Sinai (Province of Sinai), a local militant group that had sworn allegiance to Daesh, had immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter.
For almost two years, Egyptian authorities have been cracking down on militants in the Sinai Peninsula, which shares borders with both Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The campaign comes amid a spike in militant attacks on security personnel since the 2013 ouster of elected President Mohamed Morsi by the army.
Earlier in the day, six Egyptian troops were killed and three others injured in a bomb blast in North Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid city.
The attack was also claimed by Welayet Sinai, formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis.
The group changed its name after swearing allegiance to Daesh, a militant organization that has captured vast territories in both Iraq and Syria.
