Egyptian forces kill 10 'IS militants' in Sinai raid

Egyptian security forces killed ten suspected militants linked to the Islamic State group [IS] during a raid on Friday on one of their hideouts in the Sinai Peninsula, the interior ministry said.

Members of the group opened fire at the security forces as they approached the hideout in an abandoned house in the North Sinai provincial capital of al-Arish, a ministry statement said.

The gunmen were linked to a militant leader from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis who formed groups that attacked security forces, the ministry said.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is the name used by the group before it pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014.

The attacks include a car bombing on Monday at a checkpoint near al-Arish that killed eight policemen and a civilian, the ministry said.

Egypt's president made a rare phone call with a local TV network in the wake of a brazen militant attack.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that the country faced a tough battle as it struggles "alone" against insurgents.

"We have been and are possibly still are facing a massive challenge all alone," Sisi said on Tuesday in a conversation with talk show host Amr Adib.

"We have known that this terrorism would come with great financial and human costs, as we're losing people and souls," he said, adding that there were around 30,000 stationed in Sinai.

He claimed that no "innocent" civilians have been killed in the past three years of counter-terrorism operations in the once restive peninsula.

IS claimed responsibility for the checkpoint attack, during which the interior ministry said the police shot dead five assailants.

Extremists have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Morsi in 2013 unleashed a bloody crackdown on his supporters.

Most of the attacks have taken place in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, though attacks have reached Cairo.