Sinai has seen almost daily militant attacks in recent weeks, including this car bomb in El Arish in July
At least 24 Egyptian policemen have been killed in an ambush attack in the Sinai peninsula, say reports.
Medical sources and officials said the police were in two
buses which came under attack from armed men close to the town of Rafah
on the Gaza border.Three policemen were also reported to have been injured in the blast.
The military recently intensified a crackdown against militants in Sinai, where attacks have surged since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Egyptian deployments in Sinai are subject to the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
In Monday's incident, security sources said four armed men had stopped the police buses and forced the passengers to get out before shooting them.
Overnight on Saturday, the AFP news agency reported that a civilian, two soldiers and a police officer were killed in an attack in Assuit.
Egypt's interim leaders have declared a state of emergency amid the nationwide unrest which has followed the ousting of Islamist Mohammed Morsi as president.
A night-time curfew is in place in several provinces and in the capital, Cairo.
On Sunday night, 36 Islamists died as they were being transported to prison.
Government and military officials said they had suffocated in the back of a prison van from the effects of tear gas, fired when the prisoners rioted.
But there were other reports of gunfire.
Mr Morsi's supporters say the removal of Egypt's first freely elected president on 3 July was a coup.
However the interim government says the Muslim Brotherhood has carried out a campaign of terror since he was overthrown.
The head of the armed forces, Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, has warned the military will not tolerate unrest.
source: BBC
