CAIRO, Nov 17 (Aswat Masriya) – The perpetrators of the latest "terrorist" attacks that targeted armed forces personnel in the governorates of North Sinai and Damietta were supported by "international intelligence agencies", Egypt's interior ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Spokesman Hany Abdel Lattif told state-run news agency MENA that both attacks "require information and capabilities which would not be available for terrorists except through the support of international intelligence agencies." He nevertheless failed to name such international agencies.

At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on October 24. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in parts of the Sinai Peninsula in response to the attack.

An Egyptian naval launch in the Mediterranean port of Damietta was attacked by gunmen in a fishing boat on Wednesday, leaving five navy forces injured and eight others missing. The armed forces said it responded with gunfire, killing at least four assailants and arresting 32 others.

Abdel Lattif told MENA that the "true enemy who supports such terrorist mercenaries will reveal his identity soon." 

Delivering a national address in response to the October 24 attack, Sisi said that “foreign support was offered to carry out the operation” in Sinai.

Egypt's most dangerous militant group, the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video released on Friday night.

The militant group pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria last week. 

Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the army's ouster of President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, which followed mass protests against his rule.