CAIRO: A suicide bomber and unknown gunmen aiming to destabilize Egypt killed nine security men and hit the country's main satellite communications center on Monday in a string of attacks, the interior minister said.

The bombing that struck a security headquarters in the southern Sinai Peninsula killed three policemen. The body parts of the suicide bomber are still being analyzed to determine who was behind the attack, Mohammed Ibrahim said.

Earlier, masked gunmen pulled alongside a pickup truck full of troops on patrol near the Suez Canal and opened fire, killing six soldiers, security officials said.

"This is an attempt to prove they are still around and are not broken," he told The Associated Press, without specifying which groups are behind the attacks. "They also aim to confuse, to distract security forces," he added.

The death toll from Sunday's violence across the country rose to 53, state media said, with 271 people wounded.

The Brotherhood is likely to be angered by the publication of an interview with Egypt’s army chief on Monday in which he said he told Mursi as long ago as February he had failed as president.

“I told Mursi in February you failed and your project is finished,” privately-owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, as saying.

David Hartwell, a Middle East analyst at IHS Jane’s, said it seems more explosive devices are being used in the capital.

“It suggests that Sinai groups are infiltrating in greater numbers in to northern Egypt,” he said. “Either these groups are expanding out of Sinai or the capabilities that they have is being used by other groups that may or not be affiliated with the Brotherhood.”