Montreal Gazette
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RABAT, Morocco – Morocco’s state news agency reports that a soldier was killed when around 100 migrants attempted to force their way into the Spanish enclave of Mellila on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast.
The assault took place at 3 a.m. Tuesday and the migrants hurled stones at the Moroccan army forces blocking their way, wounding many, said the report published late Tuesday.
Twenty-six migrants were arrested.
African migrants seeking to get to Europe often camp out around Melilla and then make late night assaults on the six meter high border fence hoping to overwhelm guards by sheer force of numbers.
Spain annexed Melilla in 1497 and together with Ceuta are the last Spanish enclaves in Morocco, which claims the territories as its own.
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