Islamist militants killed at least 13 policemen Saturday in an attack on a checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian authorities said.
Egypt's Interior Ministry said a mortar round hit the checkpoint, located near the North Sinai state provincial capital, El-Arish.
The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack but said it had deployed a suicide bomber who blew up a car filled with explosives.
Militants claimed responsibility in January for a similar attack in the center of El-Arish that killed at least five police.
Sinai has been plagued for years by a low-level Islamist insurgency, which escalated in 2013 after mass protests in Cairo and elsewhere in the country led to the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
In the worst attack, militants shot down a Russian airliner in Sinai last October, killing 224 people. A Sinai-based affiliate of Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
