An attack on a convoy killed 11 members of the Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsulayesterday, security and medical sources said.

Two were killed by a roadside bomb and the others were shot as they tried to flee, the security sources said.

Militants in Sinai have stepped up attacks on policemen and soldiers since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013.

Sisi was elected president three months ago and his government makes no distinction between the Brotherhood – which says it is a peaceful movement – and the Sinai militants.

The attacks initially targeted security forces in Sinai – a remote but strategic part of Egypt located between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal – but they have since extended their reach, with bombings on the mainland.

The violence has hurt tourism, a pillar of the economy.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb condemned yesterday’s attack and said Egypt would continue to confront terrorism.

“The world has witnessed now what the hands of terrorism are doing in our country,” he said in a statement.

“Terrorism will not succeed in breaking the will of Egyptians.”

The Sinai-based militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis said in August it had beheaded four Egyptians, accusing them of providing Israel with intelligence for an air strike that killed three of its fighters.

Egyptian security forces have launched several offensives in Sinai in a bid to eliminate Ansar, widely regarded as the country’s most dangerous militant group.

Chaos in Libya, meanwhile, has allowed militants to set up makeshift training camps only a few kilometres from Egypt’s border, according to Egyptian security officials.

The militants, those officials say, harbour ambitions similar to the al Qaeda breakaway group, Islamic State, that has seized large swathes of Iraq; they want to topple Sisi and create a caliphate in Egypt.