Three soldiers and one army officer have been killed in an explosion at 11:40AM, announced Egypt’s Military spokesperson.

Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate claimed responsibility on Thursday for a bombing that the army said killed four soldiers near Rafah, a town on the border with the Gaza Strip.

Two other senior security officials said el-Ashmawi was a major in the special forces dismissed in 2009. Clashes with militants then ensued, killing a fifth soldier, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

He says three troops were also wounded. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.

Sinai Province recently claimed a bombing that heavily damaged the Italian consulate in Cairo and earlier this month attacked several military checkpoints in North Sinai, in what was the fiercest fighting in the region in years.

Since the 2013 coup against Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, northern Sinai has become the epicenter of a deadly insurgency against Egyptian security personnel. The militants say they are avenging a government crackdown on Islamists.