JERUSALEM >> A man identified by Israeli and Egyptian authorities as an Egyptian security officer entered Israeli territory Saturday and killed three Israeli soldiers in two separate shooting incidents in a remote desert area along the border between the two countries, according to an initial investigation by the Israeli military.

Many details remained murky hours after the events unfolded, but Israeli military officials appeared to be treating the shooting along the usually quiet border as a rogue assault and said the investigation was being conducted in cooperation with the Egyptian army.

The Israeli and Egyptian militaries offered different versions.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military said the sequence of events began about 2.30 a.m. Saturday when Israeli soldiers thwarted a major cross-border drug smuggling attempt, which involved ladders being placed along the border fence. They seized a haul worth about $400,000, said the spokesperson, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht.

Then, about 8 a.m., when Israeli soldiers stationed at a border post failed to answer calls on their radio, a commander went to the scene and found the bodies of a male soldier and a female soldier, Hecht said.

More soldiers arrived to conduct searches in the area, and about noon, they tracked down a suspect in Israeli territory, Hecht said. In a subsequent exchange of fire, a third Israeli soldier was killed, as was the suspect, who was dressed in the fatigues worn by Egyptian border guards. An Israeli noncommissioned officer was lightly wounded.

The Egyptian army said in a statement that at dawn, a member of its security forces assigned to secure the border had breached the security fence while chasing drug smugglers. The army said he had engaged in an exchange of fire that led to the death of three Israeli soldiers and the injury of two others as well as the death of the Egyptian officer himself.