CAIRO: An Al-Qaeda-inspired group based in Egypt’s Sinai Wednesday claimed a suicide car bombing of a police headquarters north of Cairo that killed 15 people, the deadliest such attack since former President Muhammad Mursi’s overthrow.

The brazen assault underscored the military’s challenge to contain Sinai militants who have killed more than 100 soldiers and policemen in a wave of attacks since the army ousted Mursi on July 3.

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber identified as “Abu Maryam.”

Authorities say there are links between the Sinai jihadists and Mursi’s more moderate Muslim Brotherhood movement, but have offered no proof. Mursi and top Brotherhood leaders, imprisoned in a crackdown following his overthrow, are charged with colluding with militant groups to launch attacks in the country.

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis had previously claimed credit for bombings in Sinai and the attempted assassination by a suicide car bomber of interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim in Cairo in September.

The group warned soldiers and policemen to abandon their posts.

An Interior Ministry official told AFP on Wednesday investigators were still trying to identify the suicide bomber through human remains found at the scene of the blast, which tore down part of the police headquarter’s facade.

Meanwhile, Egyptian police arrested Mursi's former prime minister Hisham Qandil. He is facing jail after being convicted of failing to respect a court ruling while in office, was arrested in the desert outside Cairo with a “smuggler attempting to escape to Sudan”.