Egyptian authorities have arrested 13 members of the Muslim Brotherhood on suspicion of planting bombs around the Suez Canal to disrupt shipping, security sources have said.

The waterway, the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia, is a vital source of hard currency for Egypt, particularly since the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak and scared off tourists and foreign investment.

Egypt's government has escalated rhetoric against the Brotherhood, which it regards as a terrorist group, since the assassination of the country's top prosecutor last week.

The security sources said the men formed a 13-member cell that included an employee at the Suez Canal Authority.

Prosecutors had ordered they be detained for 15 days and said they had planted bombs in areas including sanitation and electricity facilities as well as on beaches.

The army toppled President Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

The Brotherhood says it is committed to peaceful activism designed to reverse what it calls a military coup, after former army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Morsi, and then went on to become elected president.

Security forces cracked down hard on Morsi's supporters after he was ousted, killing hundreds in the streets at Cairo protest camps and arresting thousands of others in what human rights groups described as a return to repression.

Since then, state-run media has demonised the Brotherhood.

Last week Egyptian security forces stormed an apartment in a western Cairo suburb and killed nine men whom they said were armed.

Among the dead was a prominent lawyer for the Brotherhood and a former lawmaker. The Brotherhood denied that the men were armed and said they were holding an "organisational meeting".

Egypt does not distinguish between the Brotherhood and groups such as Islamic State (IS) which has an affiliate in Sinai, epicentre of an Islamist militant insurgency that has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Mr Morsi's fall.

Egypt's military launched air strikes and ground operations that killed 63 Islamist militants in North Sinai on Sunday.

The Sinai has recently witnessed some of the heaviest fighting between security forces and Islamist militants.

Security sources said on Sunday troops killed the 63 in villages between the towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah.

The army found four militant hideouts and attacked them with Apache helicopters and ground troops. It also attacked vehicles belonging to the militants.

IS's Egypt affiliate, recently renamed Sinai Province, has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Morsi's removal.

Though the vast peninsula has long been a security headache for Egypt and its neighbours, the removal of Morsi brought new violence that has grown into an Islamist insurgency that has spread out of the region.

Egyptian government officials have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of links to Sinai attacks. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful movement that wants to reverse what it calls a military coup through street protests.