ARISH, Egypt, July 29 (Xinhua) -- At least five extremists and a noncommissioned military officer were killed on Tuesday in a security raid on hiding spots in Egypt's North Sinai province, a security source told Xinhua.

"The six were killed in a fire exchange during the raid launched by security forces on extremists' hideouts in a town in south of Sheikh Zuweid city bordering Israel," the source said, adding that one of the extremists was a leading member of Sinai- based al-Qaida-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group.

The raid is part of a massive security operation in the peninsula against extremist self-proclaimed Islamists who had carried out several attacks against military and police over the past year.

The terror group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for most of them.

Over the past few days, the security forces killed about 50 extremists in similar raids in the restive peninsula that has witnessed mounting terrorist attacks since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

On July 21, militants killed 22 military men at a checkpoint in Al-Wadi al-Gadid province, about 600 km southwest of the capital Cairo.

Extremist groups, which refer to Morsi's ouster as "a military coup," said their attacks were in retaliation for the massive security crackdown on the toppled president's supporters and the tough dispersal of their sit-ins in August 2013, which left more than 1,000 people killed and thousands more arrested.