Cairo, June 2 (IANS): Six Egyptian army men including an officer from the border guard were killed by smugglers and outlaws during a patrol in a desert area of al-Wahat, the country's army has revealed.
The five soldiers and the officer were killed while carrying out a patrol in al-Wahat, 370 km from capital Cairo early Saturday, Xinhua quoted the statement posted on the army facebook's page.
The attack came in response to the success of the border guard' s recent arrest of 68 smugglers and confiscation of huge amounts of weapons, drugs and cars, along with foiling the infiltration of 936 illegal migrants during the past month, the army spokesperson Ahmed Ali added in the statement.
Smuggling weapons along with Egypt desert borders with Libya and Sudan and Palestine have increased since 2011, the year that witnessed toppling of the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and later the Libyan late leader Muammar Gaddafi.