2 Israeli police officers shot and killed

NABLUS, West Bank, March 15 (UPI) -- Two Israeli traffic police officers were shot and killed Sunday near Nablus, West Bank, Israeli officials said.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the British Broadcasting Corp. a "nationalistic motive" seemed to be involved in the attack -- the first fatal shooting of an Israeli in the West Bank last April.

A group calling itself Imad Mughniyeh -- named for a Hezbollah leader killed in a bombing in Damascus, Syria, Feb. 12, 2008 -- claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack. Israeli intelligence officials had issued an alert, warning someone might to try retaliate on the anniversary of the man's death.

The officers, assigned to traffic patrol, were found in their overturned car near the Jordanian border in an area under Israeli security control, the BBC said.