EL-ARISH, Egypt, April 12 (UPI) -- At least 13 people are dead after a car bomb exploded outside a police station and a roadside bomb struck a military vehicle in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, according to authorities.
An improvised explosive device detonated next to an army vehicle in Sheikh Zuweid, a town in North Sinai near the Gaza border, killing seven soldiers and wounding two, officials said.
Hours later, a truck laden with explosives that were concealed by hay blew up outside a police station in nearby El-Arish, North Sinai's provincial capital, killing six people. Reports put the number of wounded between 30 and 44.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a Sunni militant group that switched its name to "Sinai Province" after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State in November 2014, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The group, which says it is retailiating for the government's crackdown on supporters of deposed, Muslim Brotherhood-backed former President Mohamed Morsi, conducted several other recent attacks in the region, including battles with military forces earlier this month that killed 15 soldiers, two civilians and between seven and 15 militants.
In October militant assaults on government bases in the peninsula killed over 30 soldiers. The incident prompted Cairo to begin demolishing homes and smuggling tunnels in towns bordering the Gaza Strip in order to create a buffer zone that would stanch the flow of militants and weapons between countries.
In late March, the Egyptian military said it found a nearly 2-mile-long tunnel under the yards of three homes in the Sinai border town of Rafah -- the longest discovered since security operations began in the area last year.
