Three dead in new Sinai attack as gunmen attack checkpoint

Security sources have told Reuters three members of Egypt's security forces have been killed in an attack near al-Arish, in the north Sinai peninsula.

Armed men shot at security forces manning a checkpoint in the town close to Egypt's border with Gaza. It is not known at this stage if the three killed were soldiers or police.

The latest attack came just hours after a huge car bomb in the same area killed at least 26 soldiers and wounded 25 others, in the deadliest day of violence in the restive peninsula for years.

President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has called an emergency defence meeting and authorities have cut all communications in the Sinai Peninsula.