NORTH SINAI, Oct 27 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt's armed forces announced on Monday eliminating eight "terrorists" including one who is implicated in an attack on security personnel in Sinai on Friday which left at least 30 of them killed.

Armed Forces Spokesman Mohamed Samir said in an official statement that the army also arrested seven "terrorists" and "criminals". They also destroyed three houses which Samir said belong to "terrorists" as well as three arms warehouses "used by terrorist groups in their criminal operations against armed forces and police personnel."

The armed forces spokesman announced flying into the Sinai Peninsula reinforcements from the second and third field armies as well as members of the civilian Central Security's Special Forces. 

Reinforcements were sent to assist security units in their "war on terrorism" in the peninsula, Samir said.

At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on Friday, in the worst militant attack since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last year. The explosion also caused damage to two military vehicles. 

Shortly afterwards, a separate attack by unidentified gunmen on a security checkpoint in al-Arish killed three more security personnel.

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 deadly attacks.

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

A fact-sheet prepared by Egypt's ministry of foreign affairs put the death toll for terrorism acts which took place since January 2011 and until April 2014 at 971, including 664 security personnel.