A car bomb in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killed at least 26 soldiers Friday, in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Mohammad Mursi last year.

A car bomb in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula killed at least 26 soldiers Friday, in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Mohammad Mursi last year.

Security officials said 28 other soldiers were wounded in the attack in an agricultural region near El-Arish, the main town in north Sinai.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pledged to eradicate the militants.

After Friday's attack, Sisi summoned a meeting of the national defense council -- the country's highest security body -- to discuss the killings, his office said.

Security officials said the car bomb attack targeted an army checkpoint and was carried out by suspected 'jihadists'.

"Most of the wounded have been seriously injured," health ministry official Tareq Khater told AFP.

It was the latest in a string of bloody attacks against security forces in Egypt.