At least 24 Egyptian policemen were killed and three wounded in an ambush by Islamist militants on Monday, August 19 near the north Sinai town of Rafah, medical and security sources said, according to Reuters.

The policemen were on their way to their barracks in Rafah, near the border with Israel, when militants attacked them with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades, the security sources said. Earlier reports had said an explosion caused the casualties.

Attacks by Islamist militants in the lawless north Sinai region have intensified since the army overthrew Islamist President Mohamed Morsi on July 3.

At least 850 people, including 70 police and soldiers, have been killed in the past week in a crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, which says it renounced violence decades ago.