AL-ARISH, (AFP) – Militants wounded three Egyptian policemen in the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday in an ambush of their vehicle with a rocket propelled grenade, a security official said.

The militants attacked the policemen near the north Sinai town of Sheikh Zuwayid, roughly 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of the Gaza border, as the policemen were returning from an operation, the official said.

He said soldiers and policemen had earlier arrested two Islamist militants near the divided town of Rafah on the Egypt-Gaza border.

The Egyptian security forces launched a campaign to crush increasingly brazen Islamist militants in the restive peninsula after an attack on an army outpost killed 16 soldiers on August 5.

The government always struggled with militancy and smuggling in the region but it lost its grip after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak early last year, prompting the collapse of his discredited police force and allowing the militants to flourish.