Gunmen sprayed bullets into a family party in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez today, killing at least 12 people.
It was the second massacre at a party this month in Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas, and is one of the world's most violent cities as drug cartels battle security forces and each other over smuggling routes into the United States.
"A group of heavily armed men arrived in two minivans. At least 10 men burst into the party," Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for state prosecutors in the northern state of Chihuahua, told the Reforma newspaper.
It was not clear whether the shooting at around midnight on Friday was related to Mexico's drug war, which has killed more than 6,900 people in Ciudad Juarez alone since early 2008.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon is under pressure to show the military-led campaign he launched against the powerful drug cartels in December 2006 is working. With the death toll at nearly 30,000 people over the last four years, Washington and foreign investors are on edge as the violence escalates.
Gonzalez said 12 people were killed at the party, Reforma reported, but the Juarez Hoy newspaper put the toll at 15.
Earlier this month in Ciudad Juarez, gunmen raided a party and killed six people.
Agencies