Egypt Police Kill Migrants Trying to Sneak into Israel

Egyptian border police shot dead two African migrants and wounded a third as they tried to cross illegally into Israel early Saturday, security officials said.

Border police spotted the man and woman, whose nationality remains unknown, as they tried to climb over barbed wire along the frontier and fired on them after they refused to heed calls to stop.

It was the first reported shooting this year of migrants as they try to sneak into Israel seeking a better life.

About 11 migrants, most of them from Africa, were killed last year.

Human Rights Watch said in 2010 year that Egyptian police had killed at least 85 migrants near the border since 2007.

Israel has repeatedly asked Egypt to clamp down on migrant traffic and smuggling along the porous border.