September 21, 2012
IDF soldier, assailants killed in skirmish near border with Egypt
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A wounded Israeli soldier is wheeled into Soroka hospital in the southern city of Beersheba on Sept. 21. Photo by REUTERS/Dudu Grunshpan
One Israeli soldier and three armed assailants have died in a skirmish near the border with Egypt.
Army Radio reported that two soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces were hit Friday morning after the assailants opened fire on them while they were patrolling the border with Egypt.
The other Israeli soldier who was hit sustained medium injuries, according to the report, which the IDF Spokesperson confirmed.
One of the dead assailants had a suicide bomb belt around him, the IDF said, describing the three as terrorists.
"The IDF stopped a very big terrorist attack," IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai said.
The incident, according to the report, happened near the Har Charif bulge, some 30 miles southwest of Mitzpe Ramon.
Last month, an Israel Air Force aircraft fired a missile on an armored personnel carrier that a team of terrorists had stolen from an Egyptian army base and driven across the border. The terrorists killed 16 Egyptian troops in the takeover. In June, terrorists launched an anti-tank missile at a convoy of construction workers building the border fence along the Israel-Egypt frontier. One Israeli civilian and two terrorists were killed in the attack.
Over the past few months terrorists in Sinai launched rockets at Eilat and the border region on a number of occasions, but no Israelis were injured.
