Egypt says 8 troops killed, 15 wounded in Sinai clashes

Cairo - Egypt's military says eight soldiers have been killed and 15 wounded after militants wearing explosive belts blew themselves up as they tried to infiltrate a military base in central Sinai.

A Saturday military statement says that clashes at dawn with militants accompanying the suicide bombers left 14 militants dead.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of the extremist Islamic State group now spearheading an Islamic insurgency in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Saturday's attack comes two months after the launch of a massive operation against militants in Sinai as well as parts of Egypt's Nile Delta and the Western Desert, along the porous border with Libya.

Egypt has been struggling to contain a years-long Islamic insurgency in the turbulent Sinai region.