Drug cartel responsible for deadly Mexico blast: army

[IScreamSundays]

Source: Reuters

By Julian Cardona
CIUDAD JUAREZ | Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:35pm EDT
Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican drug cartel was responsible for a cellphone-detonated car bomb that killed four people in a city on the U.S. border, state security forces said on Friday.

In the first attack of its kind during Mexico's drug war, the explosion tore through a major intersection in Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas, late on Thursday.

In a statement federal police in Ciudad Juarez blamed La Linea, the armed wing of the Juarez cartel, for the attack. Mexico's security ministry said it was retaliation for the arrest this week of a Juarez cartel member.

"There were 10 kilos of explosives, activated from a distance by a cell phone," said Enrique Torres, army spokesman in Ciudad Juarez, a manufacturing center that has become one of the world's deadliest cities over the past two and half years.

TV images showed an almost completely destroyed car with one front wheel still intact and two federal police vehicles charred and on fire after the blast in the city's downtown.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66F50G20100716

[Scurrilous]

1. Car bomb signals new dimension to Mexican drug war

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"A drug cartel has used a car bomb for the first time in Mexico's decades-long fight against traffickers, setting a deadly trap against federal police in a city across the border from Texas, the mayor of Ciudad Juarez said Friday.

Mayor Jose Reyes said federal police have confirmed to him that a car bomb was used in the attack that killed three people Thursday.

It was the first time a drug cartel has used a bomb to attack Mexican security forces, marking an escalation in the country's already raging drug war.

Federal police and paramedics were lured to the scene by a phone call reporting that shots were fired at a major intersection and a municipal police officer lay wounded at a major intersection, Reyes told The Associated Press.

As the paramedics were working on the wounded man, a parked car exploded, he said.

Reyes said authorities later determined that the wounded man was not a policeman, although he was wearing a fake uniform. The man was among the three people who died in the attack. The others were a federal police officer and a medical technician."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100716/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico


Police Killed in Juárez Blast

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"An explosive blasted Mexican federal police and rescuers when it detonated as they went to the aid of a wounded police officer in Juárez on Thursday night.

Authorities said it had not been determined if the blast was caused by a grenade or a car bomb, but the attack appeared to follow the tactics of terrorists in the Middle East.

It was unclear how many were injured, but it appeared that at least one federal and one city police were killed.

The attack occurred about 7:30 p.m. near the intersection of Bolivia and 16 de Septiembre streets in downtown Juárez. First, a municipal police officer was shot and killed, and when federal police arrived to the scene there was an explosion, an official said."

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/07/police-wounded-in-juarez-blast.html

[Scurrilous]

2. 12 killed in shootout in Mexican border city

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"Authorities say 12 people have been killed in running gun battles between soldiers and suspected drug-cartel gunmen in the northern Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo.

The federal Interior Department says in a statement that the dead include nine suspects, two civilians and one soldier.

Twenty-one people - including three children caught in the crossfire - were wounded in the gunfights Friday in which hit men blocked streets with hijacked vehicles.

Seven people are listed in serious condition.

The shootouts prompted the U.S. Consulate to warn American citizens in the city to remain indoors."

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/07/17/12-killed-shootout-mexican-border-city.html