CAIRO, Dec 2 (Aswat Masriya) - Seven "terrorist" elements were killed in a wide-scale security campaign in North Sinai, the armed forces spokesman Mohamed Samir said Tuesday.

Samir added that 15 others, who joined in executing terrorist operations against army and police forces, were arrested in the four-day campaign launched between November 29 and December 2.

Armed forces also destroyed 16 "terrorist headquarters" and seven vehicles used in terrorist operations. Ammunition and weapons were also seized.

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.