A roadside bomb has struck a passing armoured vehicle in Egypt's restive North Sinai, killing an army officer and three soldiers, an army spokesman said. Three other army personnel were wounded in the attack early on Thursday in the restive town of Rafah, the site of a rising militant insurgency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Samir said in a statement. Egypt's army is fighting an Islamist insurrection based in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, which has heightened since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. The violence has mainly targeted security forces, killing hundreds over the past two years. Seven soldiers were killed on Saturday when a shell struck a military checkpoint in North Sinai, according to a military spokesman. Operations by troops during the day, which involved air strikes, left 59 militants dead. Earlier in July, 21 soldiers were killed during simultaneous militant assaults on army checkpoints in the North Sinai towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, an attack that prompted days-long fighting between troops and insurgents and left over 200 militants dead. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/136026.aspx