A top leader of Egypt’s most active militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis was killed on Friday by Egyptian soldiers in the lawless north of the Sinai Peninsula.

A top leader of Egypt's most active militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis was killed on Friday by Egyptian soldiers in the lawless north of the Sinai Peninsula, a military spokesman said on Facebook.

Sinai-based Ansar, which seeks to topple the government, has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police over the past year and beheaded several people in recent weeks, claiming they were spies for Zionist intelligence.

The spokesman said Shehata Farhan was implicated in operations targeting of police and security forces and was killed during a raid in the town of Rafah, near the border with Gaza.

Egypt said last week it had killed a field commander of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Mohammad Abu Shatiya, in clashes south of Rafah.

Egyptian security officials claimed the group has contacts with the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) terrorist group operating in Syria and Iraq.