An attack on an Egyptian military checkpoint killed 12 soldiers and wounded six others on Friday in the Sinai peninsula where security forces are fighting Jihadists.
Mortar rounds were fired at the army post, a police official and a medic told afp. The army spokesman said in a statement that soldiers clashed with the assailants in the northern Sinai.
An earlier toll given by security and medical sources said at least nine soldiers were killed.
The attack took place in the bir al-abd area west of el-arish, the provincial capital of north sinai. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.