CAIRO: A car bomb in Egypt´s Sinai Peninsula killed 25 soldiers Friday, in one of the deadliest attacks against security forces since the military deposed president Mohamed Morsi last year.
Security officials said 26 other soldiers were wounded in the attack near El-Arish, the main town in north Sinai.
Militants in the peninsula have killed scores of policemen and soldiers since Morsi´s overthrow to avenge a bloody police crackdown on his supporters.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who toppled Morsi and later won elections, has pledged to eradicate the militants.
After Friday´s attack, Sisi summoned a meeting of the national defence council -- the country´s highest security body -- to discuss the killings, his office said.
Security officials said the car bomb attack targeted an army checkpoint in the Sinai and was carried out by suspected jihadists.
"Most of the wounded have been seriously injured and not all of them have been taken to hospital yet," health ministry official Tareq Khater told AFP.
It is the latest in a string of bloody attacks against security forces in Egypt.
In August 2013, just weeks after the army ousted Morsi, 25 soldiers were killed in the Sinai when gunmen opened fire at two buses transporting troops with automatic rifles and rocket launchers.
In July this year, 22 border guards were killed in the western desert near the border with Libya.
Last month militants killed 17 policemen in two bombings in Sinai and later released footage of the attacks. (AFP)
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