CAIRO, Dec 21 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt's armed forces killed 14 "terrorists" in raids in Sinai from Thursday to Saturday, the army spokesman said on Sunday.

Armed forces spokesman Mohamed Samir said in a statement that security forces also arrested 45 more; five of them are wanted while the rest are suspects.

Security forces destroyed as well five "terrorist headquarters", Samir said.

Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, which followed mass protests against his rule.

At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on October 24, in the worst militant attack since Mursi's ouster. 

Egypt's most dangerous militant group, the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video released on November 14, shortly after pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in parts of the Sinai Peninsula in response to the attack.