In a statement, the Egyptian armed forces affirmed that a group of militants attacked a water plant in the area of East Canal, killing an officer and 10 soldiers and wounding five others.

The attack was thwarted and an operation is underway to hunt down and lay siege to the "terrorist elements" in a remote area in Sinai, it added.

Egyptian president AbdulFattah El-Sisi said that the terrorist operations will not undermine the resolve of the armed forces to uproot terrorist.

Sinai has been gripped by an armed insurgency for more than a decade, which peaked in 2013.

In February 2018, the army and police launched a nationwide operation against militants focused on North Sinai.

More than a thousand suspected militants and dozens of security personnel have been killed since the start of operations, according to official figures.