Sinai-based militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis said on Wednesday, Dec 25, it had carried out the attack on an Egyptian police compound in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura which killed 16 people and wounded about 140, Reuters reports.

The army-backed government vowed on Tuesday to fight "black terrorism", saying the December 24 attack would not upset a political transition plan whose next step is a January referendum on a new constitution.

The Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group, whose name means "Supporters of Jerusalem", has also claimed responsibility for a failed assassination attack on the interior minister in September.