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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexican Security Forces Bag 11 Bad Guys in Zacatecas |
| 2011-08-23 |
| For a map, click here A total of 11 armed suspects were killed in firefights between Mexican security forces and suspected drug traffickers in southern Zacatecas state Sunday and Monday, according to Mexican news accounts. The gun battle began Sunday morning as Mexican Army units sealed off approaches to the city of Jalpa which sits astride Mexican Highway 54, and which is near Aguascalientes. Reports say units of the Mexican 11th Military Zone focussed their operations in the Santa Cecilia colony and near a hospital, which was said to be under siege by the army. Neither the Secretaria Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), the controlling agency for the Mexican Army nor the headquarters of the 11th Military Zone release details on the battle which began early Sunday morning. Seven armed suspects were killed and four others were wounded. A Mexican soldier was also killed in the battle. The Mexican leftist weekly Proceso reported Monday that three Mexican soldiers were wounded in the encounter and were evacuated to a civilian hospital in Aguascalientes nearby. Four pickup trucks and weapons were seized after the battle ended. Proceso also reported in a Monday night website posting that four armed suspects were killed in an apparent intergang firefight in Atolinga, Zacatecas just across the border from Jalisco state. In an apparent separate gun battle Monday in the village of El Santiago in Jalpa municipality, two armed suspects and one soldier were killed. One suspect was detained. The southern border area in Zacatecas has become a severe flashpoint in the Mexican War on drug as an alliance of cartels associated with the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels have united to destroy Los Zetas. The area around southern Zacatecas was the focal point of a large Mexican federal counternarcotics offensive where several drug labs and plantations were destroyed. To read a Rantburg report on a recent gun battle between the Mexican Army, click here and follow the links which describe the counternarcotics offensive earlier in May. Up until this summer Zacatecas was known as a reliable haven for Los Zetas, but that may be changing. |
| Posted by:badanov |
