Gun Battles in Mexican Border City Leave at Least 12 Dead

MEXICO CITY – At least 12 people were killed in three gun battles involving Mexican army soldiers and suspected drug cartel hit men in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, officials said.
“Nine criminals, two civilians and a soldier were killed in the three clashes between elements of the National Defense Secretariat and members of organized crime, and 21 people were wounded,” the Government Secretariat said in a statement.
The secretariat added that seven of the wounded – including three minors – are in serious condition and are being treated at a Social Security clinic in Nuevo Laredo, while the other 14 are in “delicate but stable” condition and receiving treatment in that city’s general hospital.
For its part, Sedena said in a statement that it repelled four attacks Friday by armed gangs in different parts of Nuevo Laredo.
It confirmed the deaths of the suspected cartel members, the soldier and the civilians, as well as the seizure of several weapons and vehicles.
Hours earlier, the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo had warned on its Web site about violent clashes in that border city.
“We have received credible reports of widespread violence occurring now between narcotics-trafficking organizations and the Mexican army in Nuevo Laredo,” the statement read.
The consulate confirmed that fragmentation grenades were used in the attacks and that suspected drug-gang members had blocked several roads, adding that it advised “all U.S. citizens in Nuevo Laredo to remain indoors until the security situation improves.”
Nuevo Laredo, which is located across from Laredo, Texas, and is the border city through which 75 percent of Mexican exports to the United States are shipped, is currently being fought over by the Gulf cartel and its former allies, Los Zetas, a band of special forces deserters turned outlaws that control that region.
Elsewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border, at least four people were killed, including a woman, and four others were wounded in an attack carried out by suspected cartel hit men in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, authorities said Friday.
Witnesses said the group of gunmen burst into a home in that city, Mexico’s murder capital, and fired at everyone inside.
Authorities said the unidentified victims were apparently close relatives.
A spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office in Ciudad Juarez said that more than 100 shell casings from automatic weapons were found at the home.

Latin American Herald Tribune – Gun Battles in Mexican Border City Leave at Least 12 Dead