Cairo: At least 50 army officers and soldiers were killed in a wave of attacks on Wednesday on military bases in the Egyptian province of North Sinai, an official security source told Xinhua news agency.

Militants fired mortar rounds on five Egyptian military checkpoints in North Sinai’s city of Sheikh Zuwied in the early hours of Wednesday, the source said.

Another police station was attacked in southern Sheikh Zuwied, the source added. Witnesses saw Apache helicopters hovering over the city.

The attacks came two days after Egypt’s prosecutor general Hisham Barakat was assassinated in a car bomb attack.