Roadside bomb in Sinai kills 2 Egyptian security forces

Egyptian security officials say a roadside bomb has targeted a pickup truck carrying members of the security forces in the turbulent north of the Sinai Peninsula, killing two.

The officials say the Sunday blast took place on a road just south of the coastal city of al-Arish. Five other members of the security forces and a civilian were wounded in the attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of the extremist Islamic State group (IS), now leading a long-running insurgency in Sinai.

Egyptian security forces have been battling Islamic militants in Sinai for years, but the violence spread and intensified in 2013 after the military overthrew Mohammed Morsi, a freely elected Islamist president whose one-year rule proved divisive.

The region is now home to a powerful Islamic State group affiliate that has claimed a number of large attacks.

Cairo has been including heavy handed government policies in Sinai ranging from displacements of civilians to shoot-to-kill orders which have not contained the insurgency. Instead they have sometimes made residents prey to recruitment by them.