CAIRO: An attack on a convoy killed 11 members of the Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, security and medical sources said.

Two were killed by a roadside bomb and the others were shot as they tried to flee, the security sources said. Security sources said earlier that the attack killed 10 soldiers.

Militants in Sinai have stepped up attacks on policemen and soldiers since President Muhammad Mursi's ouster in July 2013.

A Sinai-based militant group said in August it had beheaded four Egyptians, accusing them of providing Israel with intelligence for an air strike that killed three of its fighters.

Meanwhile, 9 people were killed on Tuesday in a stampede outside a military academy in Egypt by relatives seeking to visit cadets, the army said in a statement.

The military released a statement expressing its condolences over the accident, adding that the relatives had crowded around the gates of the complex in Ismailia, northeast of Cairo, in violation of regulations for visitors.

Another five people were hurt and taken to hospital for treatment.

"The Armed Forces sends its condolences to the families and relatives of the victims," the statement said.

Egyptian security forces have launched several offensives in Sinai in a bid to eliminate Ansar, widely regarded as the country’s most dangerous militant group.

Chaos in Libya, meanwhile, has allowed militants to set up makeshift training camps only a few kilometres from Egypt’s border, according to Egyptian security officials.