MEXICO CITY, Jan 5: US Border Patrol agents have come under fire twice along the Rio Grande in Texas in recent days amid rising tension on the frontier with Mexico, although no one was reported wounded, US authorities said on Thursday.
A Border Patrol spokesman said unknown gunmen fired on agents on patrol in Brownsville, Texas, late on Wednesday.
“Shots were fired, no one was injured and the FBI have taken the case over,” Jose Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in McAllen, Texas, said.
Rodriguez said the shooting was the second along the same stretch of the Rio Grande in the past week, after agents patrolling the area in a launch on Friday came under a volley of gunfire from Mexico.
“On that occasion the shooters were hiding in brush on the Mexican side of the river ... The launch was struck by five bullets, although there were no injuries,” he said.
That incident came on the same day a Border Patrol agent fatally shot a teenage Mexican immigrant as he crossed the border near San Diego on Dec. 30, triggering widespread anger in Mexico and calls for a full investigation.—Reuters
