Suspected militants set off a roadside bomb in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula on Monday as a bus full of police conscripts drove by, wounding nine of them, security officials said. The blast on the outskirts of El Arish, northern Sinai’s provincial capital, came amid a counterinsurgency operation by Egypt’s military and the police in the volatile desert region. The bus that was bombed Monday was traveling from the border town of Rafah, near the Palestinian Gaza Strip, to El Arish and was escorted by an armored police car. The bomb was set off by remote control, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.