21 killed in Mexican gun battle 12 miles from the US border

[al-Ameriki]

Nearly two dozen people were killed in a Mexican border area on Thursday during a fierce gun battle between suspected members of rival drug gangs, Mexican authorities said.

The bloodshed took place only 12 miles from the U.S. border, in Sonora, a state that is a popular tourist destination famed for its beaches but whose interior has increasingly been consumed by drug violence. Prosecutors said the battle was a showdown between two rival drug and migrant-trafficking gangs, who sprayed gunfire at one another in a sparsely populated area, the Associated Press reported.

The shooting culminated in the deaths of 21 people, with Mexican authorities taking another nine people into custody, including six with bullet wounds.

For several years now, Mexico has been gripped by violence as warring drug cartels battle over lucrative drug routes through border regions like Sonora, Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. The heavily armed and ruthless cartels have murdered wantonly, killing hundreds of police, military officers, top officials and politicians.

In the last year, the rate of killings has only surged, and this year is already on track to become the deadliest in half a decade. More than 5,000 drug-related killings have occurred thus far in Mexico, eclipsing the totals in 2007 and 2008 and nearing the 6,500 killed in 2009 alone.




http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/world ... 3drug.html