EL-ARISH, Egypt — Militants attacked Egypt's security forces and wounded four policemen in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, in the tenth day of clashes since 16 soldiers were killed in the volatile borderland near Israel and the Gaza strip earlier this month.

The troops were returning from an early morning raid where they had arrested two suspects in their homes when militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at their convoy as it was driving along a major road, a security official said.

The government troops fired back immediately but the attackers fled, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The attack occurred on the coastal road linking northern Sinai's main city of el-Arish to the Egypt-Gaza border town of Rafah.