One Egyptian soldier was killed and another five were wounded in an explosion in the volatile Sinai Peninsula on Friday, Anadolu has reported. According to an anonymous local security source, an explosive device was detonated on the main road into the coastal city of El-Arish. The wounded soldiers were rushed to hospital and are in a critical condition. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

The incident follows another attack on Thursday, when two soldiers were killed and a third was wounded at a military checkpoint known as Al-Masoura in the north of Sinai. This happened just hours after the extremist Welayat Sinai (Sinai Province) group announced the death of its leader. The group is said to have sworn allegiance to Daesh.

The whole of Sinai is in the grip of unrest. On Monday, three soldiers were killed and a fourth was wounded when their vehicle was targeted by a roadside device in the middle of the peninsula. This followed the killing of a police officer, also in El-Arish. Furthermore, there were several attacks on three checkpoints last week, during which two soldiers and eight gunmen were killed, security sources have said.

Since mid-2013, when Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was ousted in a military coup, hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have been killed in Sinai amid an ongoing, low-intensity militant insurgency. For their part, Egyptian security forces have continued to wage a fierce campaign in the peninsula, involving both the police and the army, against what they describe as “terrorist groups”.