Two policemen, three soldiers killed in Egypt's Sinai

Two policemen and three soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula Thursday, a security source told Xinhua.

Two groups of militants stopped their cars in Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, checked their IDs and shot them dead, the source said.

Egypt has been facing a rising wave of terrorism since the military ousted former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

The crackdown on Morsi's supporters has left about 1,000 people dead while thousands more have been arrested. Anti-government attacks have since extended from the Sinai Peninsula to the capital Cairo and other provinces across the country.

Also Thursday, a bomb went off at Helmiet Al-Zeitoun metro station in the northern part of Cairo, wounding at least 16 people, mostly minors, according to state-run MENA.

In late October, a blast targeted a big military checkpoint in nearby Sheikh Zuweid city, leaving some 30 soldiers dead and many others injured. Egypt announced a three-month curfew and a state of emergency in some parts of North Sinai in response to the attack.