CAIRO, Jul 14 (Aswat Masriya) - Seven suspected militants were killed and 13 others were arrested on Tuesday in a wide-scale security campaign across Sinai, security sources said.

The campaign targeted areas in North Sinai's towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, state news agency MENA cited the sources as saying. A number of "terrorist" hotbeds were also raided.

At the time of the campaign, telephone communication was cut for several hours. It was a preventive measure against "the use of mobile phones to detonate improvised explosive devices against security forces," sources at the governorate said. It was restored after the campaign concluded.

Militancy inside Egypt has seen a significant rise since July 2013, with most attacks targeting security forces in North Sinai.

On July 1, a number of security checkpoints and a police station in the town of Sheikh Zuweid were attacked by the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis militant group, in what was labelled as a failed attempt to take over the town. 

The attacks claimed the lives of 17 army personnel and injured 13, according to military figures.