Armed attacks in Mexico leave 24 dead, including at least 12 police

AFP | Acapulco                                                   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Three separate armed attacks in Mexico on Monday left at least 24 people dead, including a dozen police officers, authorities said about the latest violence to hit regions plagued by drug trafficking. In the deadliest incident, unidentified attackers targeted a security patrol in Guerrero state’s municipality of Coyuca de Benitez, prosecutor Alejandro Hernandez said.

At least 13 people were killed and two others wounded in that attack, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement, with Hernandez earlier having confirmed that at least 11 of those killed were members of the municipal police force.

A senior state security official was traveling in the convoy when it was attacked, authorities said, without confirming media reports that he was murdered along with police bodyguards. Security forces were later seen patrolling the area -- where several lifeless bodies lay on the ground -- as a police helicopter flew overhead.

Another attack, in the neighboring state of Michoacan, left four civilians and a policeman dead, and two others wounded, authorities said. A group of gunmen had attacked the brother of the mayor of the town of Tacambaro, according to the state prosecutor’s office.

A restaurant worker and a member of the police force were among those killed, while the mayor’s brother was wounded, it said. In a video posted on social media, gunmen were seen opening fire before fleeing in several vehicles.

A third attack on Monday, a gunfight between alleged drug dealers in the central Mexican state of Puebla, left at least six dead and two wounded, the regional government reported. The incident took place in the rural community of San Miguel Canoa, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Mexico City.