UPDATE - Roadside bombs kill 18 policemen in Egypt's Sinai

*UPDATES WITH HIGHER DEATH TOLL

By Alsayyed Saber

CAIRO (AA) - At least 18 Egyptian security personnel were killed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Monday when their vehicles struck a series of roadside bombs, according to local security sources.

Three police vehicles had been driving along the road linking the Sinai city of Bir al-Abd to the northern city of Al-Arish when they struck a series of improvised explosive devices, local media quoted unnamed security sources as saying.

According to the same sources, casualties included a number of high-ranking officers.

No group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, while the Egyptian authorities have yet to comment on the incident.

The Sinai Peninsula has remained the epicenter of a deadly militant insurgency since 2013, when Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely-elected president, was ousted and imprisoned in a bloody military coup.

Since then, hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have been killed in attacks across Sinai -- especially in the peninsula’s volatile northeastern quadrant, which shares borders with both Israel and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian authorities claim they are battling the Welayat Sina, or “Province of Sinai” group, which is said to have links to the Daesh terrorist organization.