World Bulletin / News Desk

Gunmen in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula killed five police conscripts on Saturday, the interior ministry said.

The attack came days after assailants shot dead three policemen and their driver in the city, in an attack claimed by the ISIL group’s Egypt affiliate.

Militants have killed hundreds of soldiers and police since the Mohammed Mursi government was deposed in 2013.

They pledged allegiance to ISIL more than a year later, and their attacks have persisted despite a sweeping military campaign in the peninsula which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip.

The militants have also targeted foreigners, claiming the bombing in 2015 of a Russian airliner carrying tourists home from a Sinai resort. All 224 people on board were killed.