Egyptian police have reportedly traded fire with gunmen in the Sinai region as security forces push on with a crackdown on Islamic militants in the area.
The state-owned Nile News television reported clashes outside a police station in the north Sinai town of al-Arish -a day after air strikes reportedly left at least 20 militants dead in the neighbouring village of Tumah.
"Clashes resumed between armed men and police forces in front of police station number two in al Arish," said the state television report.
However, the MENA state news agency cited a security official denying the report.
It said a man driving an unlicensed car had fired several shots in the air on the street housing the police station.
The conflicting reports come after helicopter gunships were used on Wednesday to uproot Islamic militants blamed for killing 16 Egyptian soldiers during an attempted attack on Israel.
At least eight gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint near the city of Rafah where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza meet.
The attackers killed the soldiers as they were breaking their daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan with a sunset meal.
They seized two armoured vehicles. One exploded by the security fence by the Kerem Shalom crossing while the other was driven across the border into Israel before it was destroyed in an Israeli air strike.
Wednesday's aerial attack and joint ground operation - to "restore stability and regain control" over the desert territory - was the first in the territory since Egypt's 1973 war with Israel.
The fallout from Sunday's checkpoint ambush, the deadliest for Egyptian troops in decades, spread to Cairo where President Mohamed Morsi sacked his intelligence chief for failing to act on an Israeli warning of an imminent attack days before militants stormed the border post.
Under fire for not attending a state funeral for the slain soldiers, Mr Morsi also replaced the commanders of the military police, his presidential guards and several other officials.
