At least six people were killed on Friday in clashes between pro-Islamist protesters and Egyptian police in Cairo, the health ministry said.

Supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi had held small marches after the morning prayers for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Egypt sacked Cairo police chief General Osama Bedair on Thursday, days after separate car bombings killed the country's top prosecutor and struck the Italian consulate.

The interior ministry said in a statement that Bedair was replaced by his deputy, General Khalid Abdel Aal, but gave no reason for the decision.

The Islamic State jihadist group said it carried out a missile attack on an Egyptian navy vessel off North Sinai on Thursday, the first such incident in a two-year insurgency.

The group's Egyptian affiliate claimed it fired a "guided missile" at the patrol boat north of Rafah, which neighbors the Gaza Strip, in a statement posted on one of its social media accounts.

Egypt on Wednesday agreed to revise a controversial article of its touted anti-terror law threatening journalists with jail for reporting anything but the official line on jihadist attacks, state media reported.

The planned law sparked a backlash from Egyptian media after it included an article threatening at least two years in prison for publishing "false information on terrorist attacks that contradict official statements".

Egypt's cabinet decided Wednesday to rename a Cairo square where police killed hundreds of Islamist protesters in 2013 after the country's top prosecutor, who was assassinated last month. 

Rabaa al-Adawiya Square is to be called Hisham Barakat Square in honor of the prosecutor, who died in a June 29 car bombing, a government statement said.

Egypt's military said Wednesday its troops foiled a suicide car bomb attack targeting an army outpost on a highway between Cairo and the canal city of Suez.

The Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist organization known as the "Sinai Province" claimed the attack on a Twitter account affiliated to the group.

Egypt said it hoped the historic nuclear deal agreed by world powers and Iran Tuesday would prevent an arms race in the Middle East and help achieve peace in the region.

A foreign ministry statement said it "hopes the deal would prevent an arms race in the Middle East, clear it from any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, and lead to peace and stability in the region."

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday expressed his country's firm backing for Egypt in fighting "terrorism" after the jihadist Islamic State group said it bombed Rome's consulate in Cairo.

IS claimed Saturday's car bombing on the city center complex in the first such attack on a foreign mission in Egypt since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has hailed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as the only leader who can "save" Egypt, after a deadly car bomb attack on Rome's consulate in Cairo.

He also vowed that Italy would not be "intimidated" after Saturday's attack claimed by the Islamic State group that killed one civilian and injured nine more people.

Close friends and family paid respects Sunday to cinema legend Omar Sharif, who will forever be remembered as the eponymous "Doctor Zhivago", at a solemn funeral in his native Egypt.

Sharif, 83, died on Friday of a heart attack in an upmarket Cairo clinic after a struggle with Alzheimer's disease.