Officials say that at least six Egyptian soldiers were killed in a double suicide bomb attack in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Wednesday.
The attack, targeting the Egyptian army, wounded another ten soldiers and seven civilians. One of the blasts hit the military intelligence headquarters in Rafah on the boarder of the Gaza strip and the other explosion hit a nearby checkpoint.
Military spokesman Ahmed Aly, quoted by AFP, said that the blasts were caused by car bombs, and put the blame on "Islamist terrorist elements" for the explosions.
"Islamist terrorist elements carried out a treacherous attack using two cars loaded with a large quantity of explosives that left six soldiers dead and 17 people injured," he said.
The first suicide attack was carried out by a suicide bomber driving a car at high speed into the intelligence headquarters in the Imam Ali area of Rafah which buried several victims under the debris. The explosion of the bomb shattered windows, witnesses say.
Shortly afterwards, another suicide bomber blew him self up in a car filled with explosives next to an army checkpoint. There were also reports that rocket-propelled grenades were fired.
The attacks come just days after an Al Qaeda inspired group in the Sinai peninsula took credit for a Cairo bombing that targeted the interior minister last week, pledging more attacks.
Since the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi back in July, the military has drawn more troops and armor into Sinai to deal with a rise of Islamic terrorist attacks. A crackdown on Egyptian Islamists by authorities has left hundreds dead throughout the country.