25 Egyptian policemen killed in Sinai attack: Interior Ministry

In a statement, the ministry said that a bus carrying Central Security conscripts had been ambushed in the Abu Tawila area on the Rafah international road by militants who opened fire at the bus, killing 25 and injuring two.

The conscripts had been returning from vacation at their base in Rafah, the statement said.

The ministry accused "militant groups in northern Sinai of targeting policemen who were carrying out their responsibilities with efficiency and bravery."

A cabinet statement, however, said the attack had targeted two personnel carriers with rocket-propelled grenades, a version of the story confirmed earlier by security sources speaking to AA.

Yet sources said that initial investigations revealed that the gunmen had intercepted the two busses, forced the soldiers out, and bound their hands before shooting them.

Drivers of the two buses, who were allowed to go, headed to the nearby Masoura checkpoint, the sources said.

The incident is the deadliest of its kind since August of last year, when 16 Egyptian border guards were killed in an attack by unidentified gunmen at a border checkpoint near the North Sinai city of Rafah.

Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which shares borders with both Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, has seen almost daily attacks by unknown assailants since ousted president Mohamed Morsi's July 3 overthrow by the military.