Cairo, Egypt - Egyptian Border Guard foiled an attempt to smuggle a shipment of arms and munitions through its borders with Libya. Major General Ahmed Youssef, the commander of the Border Guard troops, said Monday the shipments included 138 pieces of arms, including automatic rifles, sniper rifles and machine guns, as well as a big quantity of munitions.

Youssef said Border Guards detected two vessels on the international border line between Egypt and its north African neighbour, which were attempting to infiltrate from the west into the east.

He explained that a manhunt operation started, forcing smugglers to get rid of the shipment, without human casualties on either side.

Such smuggling attempts have been taking place since the beginning of the Libyan uprising that started a few days after Egypt's 25 January revolution, escalating since the overthrow of long-serving Libyan ruler, Mouammar Kadhafi, in late August.

Pana 18/10/2011