At least 12 migrants drowned and 116 were rescued on Friday when their boat capsized off the coast near Egypt's second city Alexandria, a security official said.

Naval vessels were searching for more survivors, the official said, adding that those on board had left Egypt illegally.

At least seven Egyptian soldiers were wounded when improvised bombs targeted their armored vehicles in the Sinai border town of Rafah on Friday, a security official said.

The explosions occurred during a military operation in the town bordering the Palestinian Gaza Strip, witnesses said.

Around 2,000 Islamists rallied in Cairo Friday after organizers backtracked from marching on Tahrir Square, avoiding a repeat of last week's clashes with police that killed dozens of people.

The Islamist Anti-Coup Alliance urged its supporters to stay away from the iconic square during the protests to avoid more bloodshed after a week in which nearly 80 Egyptians were killed, many of them in the capital.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that Washington's suspension of military hardware deliveries to Egypt could be lifted based on the behavior of the country's rulers.

Kerry said the deliveries could resume if Cairo makes headway toward restoring civilian rule.

Egypt criticized Thursday as "flawed" a U.S. decision to suspend deliveries of major military hardware and cash assistance, saying it would not bow to American pressure.

On Wednesday, Washington stopped shipments of some large-scale military systems as well as halting $260 million (193 million euros) in cash aid to Egyptian military leaders, who ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July.

After months of foot-dragging,the United States Wednesday suspended deliveries of major military hardware and cash assistance to Egypt to signal deep concern over the mounting bloodshed and the lack of a democratic transition.

Washington said it had stopped shipments of some large-scale military systems as well as halting $260 million in cash aid to Egyptian military leaders, who are currently running the country after ousting its first democratically elected president.

The United States is poised to suspend much of its military aid to Egypt due to Cairo's sweeping crackdown against supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The decision would hold up the delivery of major weapons, including Apache helicopters, F-16 fighter jets and M1A1 Abrams tanks, officials told Agence France Presse, confirming overnight U.S. media reports.

The trial of Egypt's deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi on charges of inciting the murder of protesters will start on November 4, the official MENA news agency reported Wednesday.

Morsi will stand trial with 14 other defendants over the killings of protesters outside his presidential palace in December 2012, almost seven months before his ouster in a military coup.

Egypt's military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi left the door open to a presidential run in elections next year, telling a paper published on Wednesday it was up to "God's will.”

The general is easily the county's most popular political figure after he ousted president Mohamed Morsi and appointed an interim government in July, in response to mass protests demanding the Islamist's resignation.

Suspected militants blew up an empty military office in Sinai on Wednesday as an al-Qaida inspired group said it was behind a deadly police headquarters suicide bombing two days earlier.

A security official said suspected militants planted a bomb in a military intelligence office in the town of Rafah bordering the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The office had been vacant since July, the official added.