CAIRO (Reuters) - A police officer and a soldier were killed by a roadside bomb in Egypt's northern Sinai peninsula on Saturday, security sources said.

The bomb was detonated remotely when the victims' armoured vehicle passed by during a security operation, the sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai has gained pace since the military toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 following mass protests against him.

The militant group staging the insurgency pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014 and adopted the name Sinai Province. It is blamed for killing hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police since then.

(Reporting by Mostafa Hashem; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Gareth Jones)