Gun battles claim nine lives in northeast Mexico
At least nine suspected criminals have been killed in gun battles with Mexican government forces and gunmen from a rival gang in the Latin American country’s northeastern border state of Tamaulipas.
A statement from the Tamaulipas government said eight of the fatalities came as federal forces engaged in direct clashes with armed men on roads between the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros late on Tuesday.
The other death came in a shootout between rival crime gangs in the state.
Tamaulipas has been convulsed by a wave of drug-related violence. The terror has been blamed on the Gulf drug cartel and the rival Zetas gang, which were allies until 2010 but turned on each other over disagreements and are now locked in turf battles.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has pledged that his government will get rid of the gang violence, which has claimed about 80,000 lives in Mexico since 2007. In spite of the promise, the steady stream of killings has continued unabated.
According to official data, since December 2012, an additional 1,000 people have died every month due to violence linked to drug cartels.
The Mexican army is still fighting drug gangs across large parts of the country. The government says it has a database of 26,000 missing people in connection with drug-related violence.
MP/HSN/SS
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