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Three soldiers were killed during clashes between the Egyptian army and Islamic State-affiliated militants on Monday evening in the town of Sheikh Zuwaid in North Sinai.

The attack followed a security crackdown in the village of al-Falaq, killing three civilians - including two children - after missiles hit two houses.

The Sinai Observatory for Human Rights announced the artillery shells fired by the Egyptian army resulted in the deaths of Osama Mohammad Salam, aged four.

A strike on a second home in al-Falaq village killed Massoud Mohammed Mubarak, 33, and his brother Nasser Mubarak Masoud, aged 13.

A statement from Wilayat Sinai, the province's IS franchise, said that five Egyptian soldiers were killed in central Sinai following the targeting of a tank.

The Egyptian army has expanded its security crackdown in the restive province since Monday morning in the cities of al-Arish, Sheikh Zuwaid and al-Falaq.

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IS said again that it carried out the bombing in October of a Russian airliner over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.

Sinai militants pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014. The group  controls parts of Iraq and Syria and also has a presence in conflict-ridden Libya.

Militants, who have long used Sinai as a base, stepped up a violent insurgency after the military overthrew Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Human rights groups have accused the Egyptian military of committing numerous abuses in the resulting counter-insurgency.