Two Egyptian troops killed in Sinai explosion

Two Egyptian army personnel have been killed and one injured in an explosion in the early hours of Friday in the northwestern Sinai Peninsula.

An officer and a soldier were killed when an explosive device was detonated near their vehicle during a patrol near the airport of northern Sinai's Arish city, army spokesman Ahmed Samir said on Facebook.

Another soldier was injured in the blast, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack thus far. However, many previous attacks on security forces in Sinai have been claimed by the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis militant group.

The attack comes two days after the Egyptian military announced that it had killed five "terrorists" and arrested 78 others this week in North Sinai, as part of the military's ongoing campaign in the restive peninsula.

Egypt has been cracking down on militants in Sinai, which shares borders with Israel and the Gaza Strip, for more than a year now amid a rise in militant attacks against army personnel, policemen and security sites, the most recent of which claimed the lives 31 troops on October 24.

Egypt has been facing an increase of security and economic problems since the military overthrow of elected president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July, 2014.

However, a number of Arab Gulf sates have been giving financial aid to Cairo in a bid to reduce the country's turmoil.

Saudi Arabia has vowed to honour its aid pledges to Egypt, despite the fall in oil prices which has affected the kingdom's budget.