Egypt: Sinai 'car bomb' kills at least 25 soldiers

A suspected jihadist car bomb attack has killed at least 25 Egyptian soldiers at a checkpoint in Sinai, officials say.

The attack took place near El Arish, the main town in the north of the restive peninsula.

It is one of the deadliest attacks in Sinai for months, with reports of scores injured. 

The army has been fighting a campaign against Sinai-based militants, who have carried out a string of attacks there.

The area has become increasingly lawless since President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.

Militants further stepped up their attacks after Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was ousted by the army last year.

Security forces have been carrying out an offensive in northern Sinai, killing and capturing dozens of suspected members of jihadist groups.

"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 the AFP news agency.

Sources told the Reuters news agency that the attack targeted two armoured vehicles which stopped at a checkpoint near an army installation.

Security officials gave differing accounts, Reuters reports, with one Sinai official saying the attack was not a car bomb but was instead a rocket-propelled grenade.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi convened the National Defence Council for an emergency meeting in response to what his office called "a terrorist attack".

In September at least 11 policemen were killed in a bomb attack on a convoy in the peninsula as it travelled through the village of Wefaq, near the Gaza border. 

That bombing was claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the most active militant group in Egypt. It attempted to kill the interior minister in Cairo in 2013 in a car bomb attack.

The group professes support for Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in Iraq and Syria, although it has not formally pledged its support.