World Bulletin/News Desk

An Egyptian soldier was killed on Sunday and two others injured as they tried to defuse an explosive charge in the north of the country's restive Sinai Peninsula.

Sergeant Mohamed Harbi died while trying to disable the explosive charge in Qabr Omeir district of Sheikh Zuweid city in North Sinai, military spokesman Mohamed Samir said in a Facebook statement.

The ensuing explosion also left an army officer and soldier wounded, he added.

No group has claimed responsibility for planting the explosive charge.

Egyptian security forces announced earlier that have killed seven militants and arrested 15 others in three raids carried out in the Sinai Peninsula's northeastern quadrant.

The raids were carried Saturday evening in the cities of Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zuwaid of Sinai, the source, who requested anonymity, told The Anadolu Agency early Sunday.

"Security forces clashed with members of the Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis militant group, killing four of them in Sheikh Zuwaid, two in Arish, and one in Rafah," the source said.

"During the raids, security forces arrested 15 militants suspected of belonging to Takfiri groups and destroyed 15 terrorist hotbeds and 11 unlicensed motorbikes," the source added.

For more than one year, Egypt has been cracking down on militancy in Sinai – which shares borders with Israel and the Gaza Strip – amid a rise in militant attacks on army and police personnel since the ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi two years ago.