Mexico vows investigation after soldiers shot at US-bound migrants, killing six people

Mexican authorities have vowed to investigate a deadly incident in which their soldiers opened fire on a truck carrying U.S.-bound migrants near the country’s southern border with Guatemala, killing six people and wounding at least 10 others.

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According to a statement from the Mexican military, the truck was carrying 33 migrants from several countries on Tuesday, including Egypt, Nepal, Cuba, India and Pakistan.

The dead included three people from Egypt, one from Peru and one from Honduras, the Mexican attorney general’s office said. Investigators were still trying to determine the nationality of the sixth person killed, the attorney general’s office said.

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The vast state of Chiapas, which shares a long border with Guatemala, is a major transit corridor for migrants from around the world heading to U.S. territory — but also a zone crossed by smugglers transporting weapons, cocaine and other illicit substances .

Chiapas is also embroiled in a brutal war between Mexico’s two main drug cartels {snip}

The Mexican attorney general’s office said in a statement that it had sent a team to Chiapas to investigate. The incident occurred while a military unit was stationed along a highway after being warned of “armed people” in the area. Three vehicles ignored troopers’ orders to stop, the attorney general’s office said, sparking a pursuit.

Soldiers opened fire after being ‘attacked,’ prosecutor’s office said {snip}

Two of the vehicles escaped, the attorney general said, while the third stopped and the driver fled. Soldiers found the migrants inside.

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