A Ma'an reporter said clashes erupted during the attacks that targeted five military ambushes; al-Kharruba, Qabr Amir, al-Shallaq, al-Jura and al-Daraib in which the armed groups fired RPG shells.
Egyptian security sources said that 15 members of the armed groups were killed, and 3 civilians were injured.
Thursday's attack held the most casualties in a continuing string of violent insurgency activity that has rocked the Sinai in recent months.
Attacks on policemen and military targets initially began to increase following a coup led by Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2013, which ousted Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamad Morsi, the first democratically-elected Egyptian leader.
Morsi supporters have since been targeted by Sisi's government, leaving at least 1,400 people dead and thousands imprisoned since his ouster. Hundreds were sentenced to death in early March after speedy mass trials, which the United Nations described as "unprecedented in recent history."
The crackdown has triggered retaliatory attacks by militants targeting security forces. Most of the deadliest attacks have taken place in the Sinai peninsula, but militants have targeted police stations and checkpoints throughout Egypt.
Scores of policemen and soldiers have been killed in the attacks, many of them claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group.
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