Three Israeli soldiers killed near Egypt border

Border with Israel in the Negev Desert, south of Nitzana.

Israeli forces have in the past clashed with drug smugglers near the border with Egypt

Three Israeli soldiers have been killed and others wounded by a gunman near the border with Egypt, the army says.

A male and a female soldier were found dead at an army post after failing to answer calls early on Saturday.

A third Israeli soldier and the alleged attacker – identified as an Egyptian policeman – were later killed during a search operation.

The incident happened just hours after a drug smuggling operation had been thwarted at the border.

An Israeli military spokesman, Col Richard Hecht, said drugs worth 1.6m shekels ($400,000) had been seized after someone used a ladder to cross the fence.

He said that this was assumed to be connected to the later shootings.

An army statement said: “An investigation is conducted in full cooperation with the Egyptian army.”

Later, both the Israeli and the Egyptian armies confirmed that the dead assailant was a member of Egypt’s security forces.

source: yahoo.com