MONTERREY (Reuters) – Mexican soldiers killed 12 suspected drug cartel members with military equipment in the violent border city of Nuevo Laredo on Friday, security officials in Tamaulipas state said in another case of mass killings that have caused the homicides from Mexico.
Authorities said armed gunmen dressed in military-style uniforms attacked soldiers of the 16th Regiment in a neighborhood near the airport at dawn. The army confiscated eight AR-15 type weapons, one AK47 and two .50 caliber Barrett sniper rifles at the scene, authorities said in a statement.
Images released by the local media appeared to show dead bodies piled up in the back of a truck and lying on the side of a road in pools of blood.
A thirteenth man was found dead later in the day, according to officials, who said his death was related to the early morning clash in Nuevo Laredo, off the city of Laredo in Texas.
Local media outlets reported that the victims were likely members of the Northeast Cartel, a regional gang that is a remnant of the Zetas cartel that was once powerful.
The army has not said if any of its soldiers were wounded or killed in the confrontation.
Homicides in Mexico hit a new record last year and their trend is even higher in 2020.
Also on Friday, five police officers were killed in the central state of Guanajuato, the state security secretary said.
On Wednesday, gunmen killed 27 people at a drug rehab facility in another part of Guanajuato in one of the worst mass killings since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office 19 months ago, vowing to reduce record levels of violence.
Reports by Laura Gottesdiener and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Daniel Wallis
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