Suicide Bomber targets Egyptian soldiers in Sinai- death toll increases

Egyptian army near Al-Arish in the Sinai peninsula

At least 10 government soldiers were killed and 35 injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-filled car into a bus that was carting the troops on a roadway in northern Sinai on Wednesday.
The bomber hit one bus head-on, but managed to cause damage to another carrying soldiers that was traveling nearby,

The soldiers were part of a unit that was engaged in some of the fiercest fighting against Islamic rebel forces. They were headed to Cairo.

Nobody claimed immediate responsibility for the attack — but the method is similar to that used by al Qaeda-inspired groups,

 The toll from a bomb attack on soldiers in North Sinai has risen to 12 dead and 35 injured, state television announced on Wednesday afternoon. A parked car blew up as an army convoy passed by on the road between Al-Arish and Rafah on Wednesday morning, a security source told state news agency MENA.

The soldiers were about to begin their vacation.

 Some of those critically injured were flown to a military hospital in Cairo's Maadi, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

Preliminary examinations show a large amount of TNT explosives was used in the bomb, it added.
Troops and Apache helicopters have been combing the area for the perpetrators.
The attack is the bloodiest since mid-August when gunmen killed 25 policemen in an ambush on a security convoy in Rafah.
The restive peninsula, already suffering a security vacuum since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, has seen a spike in militant activity since Mohamed Morsi's ouster. Attacks on security and army targets in the Sinai region have killed over 100 since July.